Global Intersections: Critical Race Feminist Human Rights and Inter/National Black Women
![handle is hein.journals/maine50 and id is 319 raw text is: GLOBAL INTERSECTIONS: CRITICAL RACE
FEMINIST HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTER/NATIONAL BLACK WOMEN
Hope Lewis*
My life stories influence my perspective, a perspective unable to
function within a single paradigm because I am too many things at
one time.
Taunya Lovell Bankst
Say, I remember, when we used to sit in a government yard in
Brooklyn....
The 'Fugeesi
L INTRODUCTION
As an African American feminist law professor who is visually
impaired and the daughter of immigrants, I am often torn as to which
social justice organizing conference to attend first on any given day?
* Professor of Law, Northeastern University; I.D, Harvard University, 1986; A.B.,
Harvard University, 1983. This paper was presented at the Law, Feminim & the 21st Centruy
Conference on April 4,1998, in Portland. Maine. Special thanks to Profesr Jennifcr Viggins.
Christina D'Appolonia, the staff of the Maine law Review, and the othe organizers of the
conference on Law, Feminism & the 21st Century. I also thank Margaret Woo and Jane
Scarborough for their encouragement and lizbeth Marichal for her expert secretarial assistance.
Finally, I thank Emily Spectre, Christina Rosado. and Abira Ashfaq for their excellent researeh
assistance.
1. Taunya Lovell Banks, 76o Life Stories: Reflections of One Black Woman Law
Professor, in CRTICAL RACE FEMINISMZ A READER 96, 99 (Adrien Katherine Vfag ed., 1997)
[hereinafter CRrCAL RACE FMMNM].
2. FuGEEs, NoWoMAN, No CRY (Sony MusicEe n Inc 19%) (the oigial Ine
from a Bob Marley and the Wailers song, reads: '... in a government)rd in Tnmchtowm...).
The T-ugees (short forrefugees) are a soul and rap band comprised of Bl-cks from Haiti. Jamaica.
and the United States.
3. My status as an American law professor allos me many privileges not availab!e to most
women of color who hau disabilities. Discrimination against people with dimbilities, and how this
form of discrimination intersects with other forms of discrimination, remains largely unexplored in
citical legal scholarsip. Cy ui = S. Wiseber Disabled FacedAdditional Obstacles in Beijing.
HuMAN Rios lmsr 4TN , Oct.-Nov. 1995, at 8 (describing difficulties f.ced by womm with
disabilities who attended the World Confereac on Women in China). CriticalR=ce Feminists have
e however, how racism sexism, and other prejudices ofte underin o: privileged status
as law professors who ae also women of color. See. eg., Banks, spm noel, a 98-99 (describing
an incident in which the presence of five Black female law professors in an elevator presented a
frightening prospect for two white residents of a luxury apartment building): Isabelle R. Gunning.
ArrogantPerception, World-Traveing and Multimdtbral Feminism: The Case of Female Genital
Surgeries,23 CoLUM. Hum.RTS. L REV. 189,20304 (1991-1992) (noting thA as a Blckwoman.
the author could not expect to be treated with the respect normally accorded to law professos when
she walks into a library or classroom).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/maine50&div=20&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Global Intersections: Critical Race Feminist Human Rights and Inter/National Black Women
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