There are lesbians, God knows... if you came up through lesbian circles in the forties and fifties in New York... who were not feminist and would not call themselves feminists.
The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.
But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.
When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am a Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Poet Mother, stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.
I am a Black Feminist. I mean I recognize that my power as well as my primary oppressions come as a result of my blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both of these fronts are inseparable.