Thank you, Mikki Kendall. Thank you for reminding us all that being negligent and willfully ignorant of our blind spots is cause for cataclysm. This isn’t a book exclusively about or for women in the “hood”; it is a must-read for everyone. And as for Black women in particular, Kendall uses this moment to teach us that while internalizing and centering our lived experiences often serves as our base-level contribution in an effort to advance our plight, it might also be our handicap. We are not absolved of our capacity to proliferate the dangers of the patriarchy. She emphasizes this point by endorsing the art of duality— Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women a Movement Forgot is both introspective and generously informative. Kendall manages to relinquish narration and power to the women that have long been exploited by the feminist movement. As a Black woman, I felt just the right amount of involved yet vigilant at the same time.

Kendall’s essay is a dignified conglomerate intended to increase the visibility of women that continually live in the peripheral of society. Her tribute to Black women and girls is no holds barred discourse laden with personal anecdotes, analysis of society’s most pertinent issues, constructive criticism of mainstream feminism and action steps for becoming a better feminist. Let me start by saying that I am a self-proclaimed “woman’s woman”. I believe that I have fervently helped to shape the narrative about Black women by rejecting misogynoir, racism, colorism, and other harmful doctrines, out loud. But, the brilliant Mikki Kendall reads me like a book, and makes it decisively clear that I’m not doing enough. Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women a Movement Forgot has made me a better feminist, and it is guaranteed to make a better feminist out of you, too.

I think we often take for granted which issues constitute as feminist issues, and the answer is usually misconstrued. Quite simply, any issue that affects women is a feminist issue. This definition may seem trivial, but it helps us to understand why education, food insecurity, housing, safety and medical care must qualify as high-priority feminist issues. Standard feminism is inherently privileged. It fails to prioritize women’s fundamental needs over cosmetic issues like normalizing body hair on women, or challenging traditional concepts of femininity. Kendall admirably has no qualms about voicing her frustrations with a movement that debases the women that need and embody it most. Kendall’s issue with mainstream feminism is that the movement is not benevolent. Black women have merely been used as bodies to satisfy quorum, although, the movement has proven to be exclusionary at best. One of my favorite quotes in the book is a declarative message from Black women to white women, “I’m not here to clean up your mess, carry your spear, hold your hand, or cheer you on while I suffer in silence. I’m not here to raise your children, assuage your guilt, build your platforms, or fight your battles. I’m here for my community because no one else will stand up for us but us” (pp. 9). Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women A movement Forgot is a tool that helps to guide it’s readers on how to stand up for our most vulnerable in a meaningful way.

In a society that condemns race before gender it is no wonder why, as it pertains to the feminist ideology, Black women’s priorities and white women’s priorities seldom align. Kendall delivers an eloquent drag of mainstream feminism and underdeveloped allyship throughout her essay. She highlights a profound difference between feminism’s utility for Black and white women, “Feminism that could ignore police brutality killing women of color, that could ignore the steady disenfranchisement and abuse in local and national politics based on race and religion, wasn’t about equality or equity for all women; it was about benefiting white women at the expense of all others” In the news, we’ve been seeing that white women have been active perpetrators against the mobilization of Black people. This became clear to us when an overwhelming majority of white women voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election instead of Hillary Clinton. We are left to question whether or not there could ever be a genuine sisterhood that forges a mutually beneficial relationship between mainstream feminism and hood feminism.

In a nation where economic insecurity is rampant and “…66 percent of households struggling with hunger are headed by single mothers”, advocacy for eradicating poverty by narrowing the wealth gap, and providing adequate assistance and access to social programs becomes comprehensible. They say that when white America catches a cold, Black America catches pneumonia, and there is no greater validation of this truth than Coronavirus, and how it has ravaged the Black community. All of the issues that Kendall touched upon in this book have been amplified by the virus. And although this book was written prior to the outbreak, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women a Movement Forgot was prophetic; identifying cleavages in our nation that might be intensified in the event that disaster struck. For instance, she speaks about the impact that hunger has on the health of our communities. As we know, health deficiencies and limited access has made black communities more susceptible to co-morbidities that increase the likelihood of fatality if the virus is contracted. She also mentions that, “As a culture, we don’t have sufficient provisions for helping women and families escape poverty. In fact, we often create artificial and unnecessary barriers, like limiting unemployment insurance to full-time workers, which leaves part-time workers with no assistance if they lose their jobs”. The conditions that make us vulnerable are not new, and we need to spend more time rectifying these institutional injustices. After all, a nation is only as robust as it’s most marginalized communities.

Before I say anything else, I just want to say that it is imperative that the cops responsible for killing Breonna Taylor be arrested. Contrary to popular belief, gun violence is nearly just as terrorizing for Black women as it is for Black men. Kendall speaks in depth about the risks posed by the proliferation of guns in our communities, but also in the nation as a whole. The Black communities problem with gun violence and violence, in general, is America’s problem with gun violence; made evident by domestic terrorism and mass shootings.

As Black women in a society that evades accountability for promoting societal ills that are institutionally reinforced, we can hardly expect the visibility or justice we deserve. Kendall reminds us that Black women do not enjoy the luxury of bodily autonomy in any aspect of our lives, especially among our trans community. Yet, we are somehow always deserving of the harm perpetrated against us. We are brutalized by sexual violence and hypersexualization. Our access to education is intercepted by the school-to-prison pipeline in a country that spends more on the juvenile justice system than our education. Even our right to reproduce has been impeded by devastating rates of maternal mortality for Black mothers. Our right to life is disrupted by punitive policing at every tier, and beyond being looted of our most basic needs, we are expected to adhere to respectability politics. But I think it’s important to assert to the wider world that Black women are not for your consumption!

Kendall puts it best, “The hood is a reflection of the wider world”. We must be vigilant in support of our most vulnerable, while encouraging others that have proclaimed allyship to check their privilege. Collectively we must be “…willing to regularly put the needs and concerns of those with the least before our comfort”. Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women a Movement Forgot encourages us to do the work within ourselves and then in our communities to protect and defend Black women. It is an indisputable call-to-action. After reading this book, you’ll better understand your role in facilitating a harmful patriarchy and actionable steps in rectifying it.

“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond”     

   -Gwendolyn Brooks