Patricia Hill Collins quotes

Patricia Hill Collins is an influential American sociologist and a prominent scholar in Black feminist thought. Her work has significantly shaped sociological discussions about race, gender, class, and power. She has authored several groundbreaking books and continues to inspire generations of activists and academics. Here are 10 of her quotes:

Social conditions that spur large numbers of people into action are ignored in favor of a Hollywood version of history focusing on one conquering hero. Since a movement for social change is embodied in its leader, death of the leader means death of the movement. (Patricia Hill Collins)
Most activism is brought about by us ordinary people. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
The role model approach to social change is no substitute for challenging unjust employment practices, educational policies and housing. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Women gain social influence through their roles as mothers, transmitters of culture, and parents for the next generation. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Oppressed groups are frequently placed in the situation of being listened to only if we frame our ideas in the language that is familiar to and comfortable for a dominant group. This requirement often changes the meaning of our ideas and works to elevate the ideas of dominant groups. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Black 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. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Work for black women has been an important and valued dimension of Afrocentric definitions of black motherhood. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Far too many black men who praise their own mother feel less accounted to the mothers of their own children. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
Challenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly. View quote
Patricia Hill Collins
...In the United States and similar multicultural societies, media representations of women differ depending on varying combinations of race, gender identity, ethnicity, class and citizenship status. The white middle-class heterosexual woman holding US citizenship is held up as an ideal type for women from other groups. This is an ideal, a representation, a social construction and not an actual category of people... View quote
Patricia Hill Collins