Who's Afraid of Black Feminism? - by Djamila Ribeiro

SYNOPSIS

Who's Afraid of Black Feminism? brings together a long, unpublished autobiographical essay and a selection of articles published by Djamila Ribeiro on the Carta Capital magazine blog, between 2014 and 2017. In the opening text, the philosopher and activist recovers memories from her childhood and adolescence to discuss what she calls “silencing”, a process of erasing one’s personality that she went through and which is one of the many pernicious results of discrimination.. It was only in her late teens, while working at the Casa de Cultura da Mulher Negra, that Djamila came into contact with authors who made her proud of her roots and no longer want to remain invisible.. Since then, the dialogue with authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, bell hooks, Sueli Carneiro, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Conceição Evaristo has been constant.

Many texts react to everyday situations — the increase in intolerance towards religions of African origin; attacks on celebrities like Maju or Serena Williams – from which Djamila unravels concepts like female empowerment or intersectionality. She also addresses topics such as the limits of mobilization on social media, racial quota policies and the origins of black feminism in the United States and Brazil, in addition to discussing the work of reference authors for feminism, such as Simone de Beauvoir.”