Women gain social influence through their roles as mothers, transmitters of culture, and parents for the next generation.
Patricia Hill CollinsChallenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly.
Patricia Hill CollinsI suggest that Black feminist thought consists of specialised knowledge created by African-American women which clarifies a standpoint of and for Black women. In other words, Black feminist thought encompasses theoretical interpretations of Black women's reality by those who live it.
Patricia Hill CollinsA white college student from a private college goes into a poor neighborhood and volunteers four hours a week and that's considered exemplary. [Whereas] a poor kid who lives in that community and takes care of all the kids in that neighborhood four hours every day is not seen as a volunteer.
Patricia Hill CollinsBlack women's feelings of responsibility for nurturing the children in their own extended family networks have stimulated a more generalized ethic of care where black women feel accountable to all the black community's children.
Patricia Hill CollinsTo maintain their power, dominant groups create and maintain a popular system of 'commonsense' ideas that support their right to rule. In the United States, hegemonic ideologies concerning race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation are often so pervasive that it is difficult to conceptualize alternatives to them, let alone ways of resisting the social practices that they justify.
Patricia Hill Collins