In Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall has written an essential book that challenges the notion that feminism is a luxury, not a necessity. She makes a powerful and dynamic case for why hunger, homelessness, lack of education, and health care are feminist issues—issues that affect all women to some degree—and needs to be addressed by all feminists.
Most people don’t realize that the ‘feminist’ label is for sale. It signifies that you agree with a certain set of beliefs and values, but this is more than just a label. It’s also an identity that people use to define themselves and their politics, so it can be worth exploring as you grow into adulthood.
Mikki Kendall is a feminist activist and writer. In her book Hood Feminism, she challenges us to move beyond the narrow scope of women’s issues and instead look at the class as a feminist issue. The solutions we may see in our communities may be food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, and health care—but we need to be intentional about raising these issues as staples of our feminist projects.
In Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall offers a radical new vision of feminism that addresses the roots of oppression and shows how to use this knowledge to create sustainable change. Inspired by her experience as an organizing lawyer and public policy analyst, she draws on the writings of a diverse group of radical thinkers—from Angela Davis and Frantz Fanon to James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Cornel West, and Noam Chomsky—to help us see that in today’s neoliberal world where women are at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, taking care of our children and families lies at the heart of building a truly equal radical movement for justice.
About Hood Feminism Book
Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot; paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely discuss meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many but on increasing privilege for the few.
That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their myopia about how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. Kendall asks how we stand in solidarity as a movement when there is a distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others.
