Black Women, Feminism, and Terrorism: Assata Shakur

1/26/2015

This week we are talking about Assata Shakur and her revolutionary life story. Specifically, we ask the question: How did a black woman, political activist, mother and grandmother become the first woman ever put on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list and why? What are the hidden gender, race and class politics around this story and how can we begin to unpack them? What are the implications of her story for black women in the United States and elsewhere?

We will begin our discussion by talking about her life, her involvement with the Black Liberation Movement in the United States and her exile in Cuba. What is it about this black woman revolutionary that makes her such a threat to our national and international order?

Helpful links:

Assata Teach-In Site - http://assatateachin.com

"Feminist We Love: Assata Shakur", The Feminist Wire (assigned)

"An Introduction to TFW's Forum on Assata Shakur", The Feminist Wire (assigned)

"Guided Home to Port: Assata Shakur, State Terror, and Black Resistance", The Feminist Wire

Rachel-Marie Crane Williams's Comic on Assata Shakur (below...from assatateachin.com):

11 Comments

Somtochi

1/26/2015 12:03:28 pm

There aren't enough words to describe the clear injustice and ridiculousness of her placement on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. How does Assata Shakur pose such a severe and unwavering threat to society that she must be placed on the same list that houses the likes of individuals wanted for bombing US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, hijacking planes, and aiding Al Qaeda? Simply looking at the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, you clearly see the misplacement and irrelevance of Shakur on this list. I read every single description of the individuals on this list and am still confused as to how and why she has a $2 million dollar bounty on her head and why she is even deemed a terrorist.
The following is the link to the FBI list http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists. I think it's important to read the list to further gauge the absurdity of the situation.

Stacie Dickson

1/26/2015 10:29:48 pm

I know it's so crazy to me as well! Just goes to show what America truly is. You cannot stand up against the White Supremacist system without being labeled as a 'terrorist'. Welcome to the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave.

Josephine

1/28/2015 02:05:17 am

In one of the readings on the feminist wire, one of the authors talked about surveillance, specifically the binary of surveillance and terror, and I think it would be interesting to tie this back to Katie's point about privacy, how Black women are subject to this hyper visibility and scrutiny, not only in their public lives, but in their private as well. At the hands of the society as well as the government.

Samantha

1/28/2015 07:40:42 am

There is nothing about Assata's experience that warrants her a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List. I've thought about her existence on this list several times, however I never thought about her appearance on the list as it relates to her blackness and her woman-ness. Usually I think of her appearance on this list in the context of her association with the BPP and the BLA. I assumed that she was hunted down after her escape from prison to send a message to those that belonged to Black liberation movements and to further stifle the boldness of those movements. I never thought about her existence on the list as black and a woman simultaneously.

What threat does she, as a black woman, pose to the United States?
She emanates resistance in her love for the black community, which was shown in her participation in the BLA. But what threat does she currently pose to land her a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List?
And why put her on the list years and years after her escape? Why is finding her now such a pressing issue for the United States? I don't think the FBI necessarily thinks she's a terrorist, but is rather using her placement on the list as a commentary on what she represents; as a commentary on resistance itself.

Also, I think there's often a focus on black men and their perceived threat to the citizens of the United States, and the placement of Assata Shakur on the FBI's most wanted list shows that the government views black women as just as -if not more- dangerous.

Ashley

1/29/2015 01:57:46 am

Black Women, especially those who have taken the time to make themselves politically conscious of not only their oppression but the oppressions of others pose a huge threat to the Capitalistic, Patriarchal White Supremacist and Heteronormative society that is the United States of America. This is because we recognize the history, legacy and reality of slavery, genocide and its resulting intersectional oppressions. For Assata Shakur and her work advocating for her and others' rights threatened the oppressive social order that the US government condones and reinforces every day. We Black identified women, especially those of us who are either non-gender conforming or do not identify with heteronormativity are the embodiment of everything that is essentially Anti-American. I believe this is one of the main reasons why Assata Shakur’s existence is seen and narrated in a light of terrorism especially given the increased surveillance imposed by the US government post-9/11.
Josephine brought up a good point as to the hyper-visibility and surveillance of Black women but it's also important to recognize how governmental surveillance like that of the FBI's COINTELPRO on people of color, especially Black women like Assata Shakur make the hyper-visible racial subject readable as both out of place which goes in conjunction with the formation of a state-based narrative that also invisiblizes Black women's struggle and oppression. I think that it was not just important but imperative that Assata Shakur wrote her own autobiography to speak to others about not only the state-sanctioned violence, torture and dehumanization that was imposed upon her but to also offer the truth to her humanity, her innocence and expose the oppressive ways in which her identity was targeted and marginalized by the US government and its supporters.
I also find it interesting how they used Aaron Ford, A Black man in spreading this so-called "anti-terrorist" message against Shakur. Not only does it speak to the ways in which a large majority of people expect that one person from a racial or ethnic group is a representation of the entire group, they utilize a black body (like a puppet) to portray a message written and disseminated from a white supremacist governmental stance. It's also interesting to consider how gender plays into that understanding because of the ways in which men are highly valued in our patriarchal society. The FBI also utilize him as a man, which in some ways reinforces hegemonic patriarchy in further devaluing not only Black life but the lives of Black Women, in this case, Assata Shakur.

Maureen

1/29/2015 11:56:11 pm

I cannot express how much I love and agree with this comment! I feel like you have so eloquently captures the penoptic state of violence that silences and erases Black women. Due to the United States' adherence to liberalism and capitalism, structural violence (or mundane violence) is commonplace and systematically thrust upon Black women. Even media and popular culture are tools that are used to reproduce and normalize the fetishization and objectification of Black women.

I feel that Assata Shakur's recent placement on the FBI's top ten most wanted list is a valuable lesson. It shows that when one chooses to actively not participate in a culture or a government that treats them unjustly, "free" liberal democracy violently represses and silences said activist.

Somto

2/1/2015 01:50:10 pm

I completely agree with you regarding Aaron Ford and his announcement of Assata Shakur as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. It seems as if the FBI strategically used Aaron Ford, a black man, as a means to justify and legitimize the unwarranted labeling of Assata Shakur as a threat to societal peace and security in hopes to prevent their attack from being described as a racialized discriminatory crusade. The "Feminist We Love" article also mentions a very important point. Both Obama and Eric Holder, respectively the first black President and the first black Attorney General, turned a blind eye to all of this. Their lack of concern or outcry further perpetuates the transnational social, political, and economic attack on black women throughout the world.

Rose

2/1/2015 09:34:38 pm

What seems so difficult to negotiate at times is the 'group-like/ amorphous' nature of systemic racism. Adopting an almost anonymity in how large it is presented. Systemic racism is Capitalism, Government, Patriarchy. Some might believe that I don't think racism is systemic in the United States, but I do! I just want to note how malleable and evasive it can be. It is a difficult adversary in many ways. To clarify what I am trying to say maybe I can give in an example. I have always been bothered that in the U.S. we have made corporations "people". A strategic move that allows corporations to have rights, but in many cases evade blame and punishment for crimes... since which ACTUAL person accepts the punishments for all the crimes of the 'corporation'? While the corporation may have caused large amounts of harm to many people, there is no one person...but instead many people who chose to ignore the injustice (Obama, Holder, the rest of the government) and people who promote the corporate policies that harm others (Ford, all the white men standing behind him, FBI). Yet in our society we place them under the protective cover of the Corporate mask.

T. Spencer

2/3/2015 04:19:13 am

Yes! I didn't know his name or his job but what I saw was a black man speaking against Assata and it is heart-breaking. Part of me believes that he was forced to read the message in order to keep his job and it also makes me wonder if this is a tactic used by white supremacist to turn black people against each other. And I had no idea that Obama had anything to do with Shakur's placement on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. What the heck is going on??
All of this is eye-opening to me.

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Black Women, Feminism, and Terrorism: Assata Shakur

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