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Barbara Smith (born 1946) is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s she has been active as a critic, teacher, lecturer, author, scholar, and publisher of Black feminist thought. She has also taught at numerous colleges and universities over the last twenty five years. Smith's essays, reviews, articles, short stories and literary criticism have appeared in a range of publications, including ''The New York Times Book Review, The Black Scholar, Ms., Gay Community News, The Guardian, The Village Voice,'' ''Conditions'' and ''The Nation''. Barbara has a twin sister, Beverly Smith, who is also a lesbian feminist activist and writer. ==Early life == Barbara’s parents, Hilda Beall Smith and Gartrell Smith, met while attending a historically black college in central Georgia Fort Valley State University (then Fort Valley State College) in the mid-1940s. Employed by the armed services, Gartrell Smith was possibly stationed in Cleveland when he and Hilda Beall Smith eloped. Wanting to find better economic opportunities and escape from Jim Crow racism, moved from Georgia and settled in Ohio.〔Smith, Barbara, interview by Loretta Ross, transcript of video recording, May 7, 2003, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), Sophia Smith Collection, p. 2.〕 However, Beall Smith’s relatives did not approve of the marriage, and the relationship fell apart, forcing a then-pregnant Beall Smith to return home to her family in Georgia. Their children, Barbara and Beverly Smith, identical twins, were born prematurely.〔Smith interview by Loretta Ross, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), pp. 3-4.〕〔Smith, Barbara. ''Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology'', Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983, ISBN 0-913175-02-1, pxx, Introduction〕 Beall Smith died from complications of rheumatic fever when Smith was nine, and the siblings were brought up by Smiths’ extended family, with her grandmother as primary caretaker.〔Smith interview by Loretta Ross, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), p. 4.〕 The Smith siblings grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, living in a two-family house inhabited by her grandmother, two aunts, the husband of an aunt, and (formerly) their mother. 〔Bonnie Zimmerman, Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures, Routledge, 2013.〕 Smith credits her dedication to scholarship to her home environment. Her grandmother had been a schoolteacher to black pupils, and her aunts attended school whenever they could. On education, Smith recalled, “I never was interested in any other grade except for an A. () But that wasn’t because someone was threatening me at home. It was not about that. It was like, ‘We go to work every day. You go to school. School is your job’()There was no intimidation around achieving in school. It was just like, you have a mind, you’re supposed to use it.”〔Smith interview by Loretta Ross, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), pp. 5-6.〕 Despite being academically gifted and attending well-funded and resourced public schools, Smith, as a shy child, did not escape humiliating experiences of racism. Although her family rarely spoke about segregation or economic disparities, Smith recalled instances of racial discrimination: believing that she was “ugly” because she grew up not seeing anyone “who faintly looked like () being looked at as a beautiful person,”〔Smith, Barbara. Interview by Dyllan McGee, Betsy West, and Peter Kunhardt. (MAKERS ), 2013. Web. 26 February. 2009.〕 along with experiencing the racial hostility of a French instructor who believed Smith did not belong in her summer French seminar.〔Smith interview by Loretta Ross, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), pp. 8-10.〕 A gifted student, Smith excelled in her honors classed and performed well on her PSAT. Her grades and test scores gained her entrance to Mount Holyoke College in 1965. Fatigued by the racial animosity at the college, she transferred to the New School for Social Research in New York City, where she studied the social sciences. She returned to Mount Holyoke for her senior year and graduated in 1969.〔Smith interview by Loretta Ross, (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ), p. 13.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barbara Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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