First, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in The Social Construction of Reality (1966) and Karl Manheim in Ideology and Utopia (1936) similarly argue that the definition implies that the overall content of the thought and the historical and factual circumstances of Black women are inseparable.

In other words, Black feminist thought contains observations and interpretations about Afro-American womanhood that describe and explain different expressions of common themes.

First, defining and valuing one's consciousness of one's own self-defined standpoint in the face of images that foster a self-definition as the objectified "other" is an important way of resisting the dehumanization essential to systems of domination.

"[3] In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known.

Here Collins provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde.

Drawing from fiction, poetry, music, and oral history, the result is a book that provided the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought and its canon.

In the book, she situates the term historically to describe the social location of black women in domestic work before World War II.

[5] However, as Collins notes, the black woman's position as an outsider-within provides her with a unique perspective on social, political, intellectual, and economic realities.

Through academic frameworks built around a White, male viewpoint, the work in having Black Feminist Thought recognized as legitimate is listed against varying frames of knowledge, and one in particular: Positivist.

[10] According to Associate Professor Sherie Randolph from Georgia Tech's School of History and Sociology, Black feminist theory challenges widely accepted perceptions and understandings along the intersecting lines of sex and race.

The images' pervasive nature aid in sustaining intersecting oppression because they "[reflect] the dominant group's interest in maintaining Black women's subordination".

Coupled with the inherent knowledge and experiences of Black girls, Jacobs explained how it is able to provide an "opportunity to develop critical media literacy skills.

Collins describes the process of self-definition as a "journey from internalized oppression to the 'free mind'"[20] in order to emphasize its significance in the formation of the collective consciousness of black women.

Additionally, the University of Cincinnati named Collins the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Sociology in 1996; she received Emeritus status in the Spring of 2005.