This week saw the formation of Leeds University Union’s first Black Feminist Society.

The society aims to create a space for students to become familiar with the struggles of Black feminists. Students will be encouraged to engage marginalised feminist thought.

The society already has a number of events planned, including a reading group which takes place every Wednesday between 6pm and 7pm. Members are encouraged to bring their own texts and ideas along to the discussion.

A “Night of Black Arts” event has also been planned to engage Black students to participate in creative expression through art, dance and poetry performances.

LUU’s BME co-ordinator, Naomi Anderson Whittaker, told The Gryphon, ‘We want to push forward the importance of intersectionality, particularly around the areas of race and ethnicity, but also in other ways such as class and disability.’

She added, ’We really want to educate people about great black feminist thinkers, writers, poets, and academics, who are often not considered or referenced due to the centrality of Eurocentric, white norms, focuses and discourses in mainstream feminism.’

Miss Anderson Whittaker says the society was inspired by Susuana Antubam, the NUS National Women’s Officer, who said,
‘When people talk about feminism, they’re usually talking about it in the limitations of a Eurocentric perspective, or “white feminism”. But if you take the word black (in its politic sense, meaning non-white) we’d still be talking about a more realistic representation of gender inequality in the majority of global society.’

 
Lucy Connolly