Patricia Hill Collins Charts a New Course

Patricia Hill Collins discussed the history of African American activism and its effects on black youth

Patricia Hill Collins discussed the history of African American activism and its effects on black youth

Patricia Hill Collins, professor of Sociology at University of Maryland, College Park, spoke about black youth activism and the challenges facing African American communities in an Oct. 1 lecture hosted by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Collins’s lecture, titled “Intersectionality, Black Youth and Political Activism,” was the first event in the Clarke Forum’s theme for the semester, which is Inequality and Mass Incarceration in the United States.

Collins is the author of Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. She is one of the first theorists to examine intersectional identity, a term that refers to the overlapping effects of race, class and gender on an individual’s life chances.

Collins’ speech was focused around two topics: the first was on Black Freedom Struggles, Black Social Movements and Black Youth. The second section was called Charting a New Course. She started the talk with a look into what people assume about activism. This began with a look into the “stock story” about activism in the 1960’s.

According to Collins, this “Boomer Generation” stock story was one of “individual rebellion” and “generalized self-indulgence,” not political and social change. She called it “a very white, male centric story and not a very accurate one.” This “narrow, small story about middle class youth” did not examine the whole picture of the era, and did a pretty good job of excluding the black activists that fought so hard during that era, Collins said.

Collins then set out to “disrupt” the 60’s stock story myth.

“You want an education that will force you to ask the different questions,” she said, summarizing one of the main themes of her talk. Collins focused on questioning the ideas that society offers and finding ones own answers.

Collins then covered Black Youth in the Civil Rights Movement, Black Youth and Black Nationalism, Black Youth and Black Radicalism and Black Youth and Black Feminism. Her argument was centered around freedom struggle, leadership in a movement and inclusivity (or the lack of it) in social movements of the past and present.

Collins asserted that there has always been one, big struggle for freedom amongst African American communities and the past and present movements are all a part of a larger picture. She also said that a leader could not overshadow a movement.

“You have a movement and then you have a figure head,” she said. “You have to learn how to lead from below.”
The second part of her talk, Charting a New Course, touched on the political activism of the present. Collins discussed several different social movements with the African American community. This included the legacy of the Civil Rights movement, Black Feminist Activism and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Patricia Hill Collins[‘s] talk provided a well detailed and accurate account of what it is like as a student of color at predominantly white institutions,” said  Isaiah Gibson ’17. “It was truly eye opening and inspirational.”