ABSTRACT
The term 'of color' is ambiguous. For some, it simply means 'nonwhite'. For others, it has important sociological, historical, and political implications. Women of color are persons who have had the female experience within this group of persons, an experience understood as consisting of oppression both as a woman and as a person of color. Feminism has only just recently reappropriated the term 'women of color' to capture the similarity of experience attendant to being racialized within Eurocentric cultural imperialism. Most feminist consciousness-raising groups of the second wave were sorely lacking in raciocultural diversity, most often being compromised almost entirely of white women. As a distinct feminist presence, Black feminism goes as far back as first-wave feminism. Importantly, we can understand Black feminism to begin with Sojourner Truth. Building on Truth, twentieth-century feminist Audre Lorde introduced other lines of thought crucial to understanding the viewpoint of Black feminists in the United States.
