Discussion About Racism and Sexism: The “Double-Handicap” (1973)

An in-depth exploration of the world of women today with Samantha Dean. [Samantha]Good evening Tonight we're going to talk about the Black woman in today's society. Our guests are Dorothy Pitman Hughes, who is one of the founders of the community controlled daycare centers movement. She's now involved in developing an alternative to welfare and forced work programs. Also with us is Julia "Van Metre." She's a nurse, a vocalist and a student of psychology. Dorothy, do you find that to be Black and to be a woman is sometimes laboring under a double-handicap, that of racism and sexism? [Dorothy] Yes, That's absolutely true. I was almost afraid that you were going to ask me the question that was answered by Shirley Chisholm, saying that she finds it more of a problem to be a Black woman in government than a woman, or whichever way she felt it.

Certainly Black women are on the bottom of both racism and sexism, and that is a problem. But it's a problem for the liberation of all people. And if we don't end the problem for liberation for any people, we won't end it for Black women, but we can't do it without, end it for all people. [Samantha] Julia which have you found to be the most, the worst of these two problems: racism or sexism? [Julia] Well, I have to say racism first because that's what I was first introduced to, racism, you know? I grew up in Georgia, and you know how it is there, and everywhere is everywhere is like that. But I think racism is the worst. [Samantha] Do you find, as lawyer Florence Kennedy says that you're basically fighting the same enemy that it is namely, and I quote, "the white supremacist male" in both cases. [Dorothy] I don't know how do you know that I don't. I think that white women