ABSTRACT
Teachers and students face new challenges in the feminist classroom. Students are no longer necessarily already committed to or interested in feminist politics. They are no longer predominantly white or female. In a feminist classroom, especially in a women’s studies course, the black student, who has had no previous background in feminist studies, usually finds that she or he is in a class that is predominantly white (often attended by a majority of outspoken young, white, radical feminists). The feminist classroom is no longer a safe haven, the way many women’s studies students imagine it will be, but is instead a site of conflict, tensions and sometimes ongoing hostility. Black women teachers committed to feminist politics may welcome the presence of a diverse student body in classrooms. Tensions had emerged in the group between students who felt that individuals would come to class and talk feminism but not act on their beliefs in other settings.
