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Difficulty: EasyBlack Feminist and Womanist Movements

Read the excerpt below from Frances Beale’s 1969 essay, 'Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female':

'But coordinate with the exploitation of Black people is the especially brutal exploitation of Black women... she is exploited as a worker, she is exploited as a Black person, and she is exploited as a woman.'

Based on this excerpt, which of the following concepts is most directly illustrated by Beale's analysis?

  1. Double jeopardy, which describes the simultaneous and overlapping systems of racial, gender, and economic oppression experienced by Black women.Answer
  2. B
    Mainstream second-wave feminism, which focuses primarily on gender inequality without addressing racial or economic differences.
  3. C
    Black nationalism, which focuses on racial solidarity and independent institutions while viewing gender inequality as a secondary issue.
  4. D
    Orthodox Marxism, which asserts that economic class exploitation is the only fundamental form of social oppression.

Answer

Double jeopardy, which describes the simultaneous and overlapping systems of racial, gender, and economic oppression experienced by Black women.
The correct answer describes 'double jeopardy' because the excerpt from Frances Beale's essay highlights that Black women face multiple, overlapping layers of oppression—as workers (class), as Black people (race), and as women (gender)—that cannot be separated or reduced to a single issue.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the provided excerpt from Frances Beale's 1969 essay to identify the distinct forms of exploitation she describes.
Beale identifies three distinct forms of exploitation affecting Black women: economic (as a worker), racial (as a Black person), and gender-based (as a woman).
To determine the core concept, we must first catalog the specific dimensions of oppression the author highlights.
2
Match these three overlapping forms of oppression to the historical term used by Beale and other Black feminists to describe this condition.
The simultaneous experience of racial and gender oppression (often alongside class exploitation) is historically defined as 'double jeopardy' (or intersectionality in modern terms).
This matching process allows us to select the concept that directly aligns with the multiple axes of oppression described in the text.

Key Concept

The concept of 'double jeopardy' and intersectionality within the Black feminist movement, highlighting how race, gender, and class create overlapping systems of oppression.
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Topics

Black Feminist and Womanist Movements

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