Is black feminism transnational?

At the heart of Violet Barriteau’s essay lies the question as to what is shared among black women in the African diaspora, and how our commonalities can be forged into a black feminist politic. In Gina Ulysse’s exploration of the Caribbean ‘market woman’ in Downtown Ladies, we see that certain ideas about black womanhood persist in many countries outside of the U.S., but that these ideas differ from place to place. As a black woman in the U.S., it is incredible to read about black women in the Caribbean described as self-employed, autonomous, transnational informal commercial importers (ICIs). Such a level of agency is rarely afforded to black women in the U.S. when recounting our history or contemporary life. It is fitting, then, that Barriteau asks what is the relevance of black feminist scholarship in a world where there is no singular black woman experience? How do black feminists in the U.S. and black feminists in the Caribbean engage each other’s work when their histories and experiences (e.g. Jim Crow versus the “absence of state-sponsored racism the independent Caribbean”) are so different?

In my opinion, Barriteau’s piece presents one of the problems with trying to forge a kind of global sisterhood based on black womanhood. She explains that black feminism challenges white Western feminism's mythical ideas of 'global sisterhood', but on some level I still think feel that Barriteau writes under the assumption that black feminist thinking based in the U.S. is applicable to black women everywhere. Nevertheless, if black women truly are the ‘mule of the world’, shouldn't we have some kind of synthesis of our politics?