This is definitely a must read for anyone interested in intersectionality and marginalised voices.

Including Ribeiro's personal background at the beginning of the book provided credibility to the text and an introduction to the issues which would be discussed within the text. The writing is matter of fact and doesn't pander to emotional reasonings but sticks to established philosophical and sociological arguments backed by examples. I have gained a much better understanding of the position of Black women in Brazil and subaltern groups in general/

"Djamila Ribeiro's groundbreaking essay, 'Speaking Place,' delves deep into the complexities of power, identity, and voice in a society shaped by historical injustices. Through the concept of 'speaking place,' Ribeiro challenges us to reflect on the social positions that dictate our ability to be heard and understood. She eloquently traces the history of Black feminist thought, highlighting the struggles and resilience of Black women who have been marginalised and silenced. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory and the works of influential thinkers, Ribeiro inspires readers to envision a more inclusive and compassionate world. A must-read for anyone interested in issues of race, gender, and social justice."

Worth the 5 star rating without a doubt.

In this book we learn about a reality that has perpetuated throughout centuries, a cancer of society where racism and misogynism go hand in hand because for the Brazilian Black Women things have changed very little, where the violence, sexism, racism, colonialism, homophobia are present in their every day lives. Being silenced or politically and intellectually belittled because women are "too emotional", "too sensitive", "seeing things only from their perspective" and, because of that "can't think objectively about it", because even if statistics show that the Brazilian Feminists Activists speak a truth that's been registered in history, in their bodies, in their lives, THEIR TRUTH, it has been publicly put in doubt.

Djamila speaks for the voices that were drowned, and I'm here to listen. I invite you to listen too.

Thank you Djamila Ribeiro and Yale University Press for providing this book for an honest review consideration via NetGalley.

this was a really nice read! it wasn’t too groundbreaking for me as a gender studies scholar, but i still enjoyed it nevertheless.

Acting on Audre Lorde’s assertion that “survival is not an academic skill”, Djamila Ribeiro defends the idea of ‘speaking place’ not as something postmodern but structural and concrete. “Our voices are rooted in the places where we stand”, but she questions the extent to which one is bound to this locationality. Asking whether one can tear off the mask imposed by slavery, or only speak around its edges. Nonetheless, removing ‘speaking place’ from the delegitimising label of ‘identity politics’, Ribeiro stresses the socio-economic roots of hierarchies of language which turn facts into ‘opinions’ and knowledge into ‘experience’. Drawing so extensively on Black theorists, this work is not so much new in content as in form and the ease with which concepts are expressed is fantastically relevant to her subject matter.

Thanks to NetGalley and Yale University Press for the ARC!

Djamila Ribeiro’s "Where We Stand" is a call to rethink feminism from the ground-up in order to decenter whiteness and recognize Black women as subjects, specifically through the concept of “speaking place.”

I love this book. It touches on so many complex themes while remaining incredibly accessible, thanks in no small part to the way Padma Viswanathan’s impeccable translation dances with Ribeiro’s original text. The author walks readers through the work of writers like bell hooks and Simone de Beauvoir, synthesizing key concepts so that they are prepared for how writers like Grada Kilomba can speak to the Brazilian context.

The book’s main contribution is the idea of “speaking place,” which, as I understand it, is essentially rooted in the idea that different communicative registers adopt different means of seeking truth—for example, a popular magazine is epistemologically doing the the same thing as academic research, albeit in a different medium. Ribeiro points out that access and stigma are woven together, so that even Black women with a platform may go unrecognized because they are underrepresented as a whole. Individual experience is not the metric; it’s collective and structural positionality that matters. Ribeiro writes, “To speak is not merely to emit words; it is to assert one’s place in the world—to assert one’s write to exist, to be.”

Ultimately, this focus resists superficial ideas of universality and intersectionality. Rather than framing all oppression as qualitatively similar or creating an artificial hierarchy, it opens discourse to the nuance of position, and it complicates notions of access—allowing someone into a structure that isn’t built for them accomplishes nothing. Furthermore, Ribeiro notes, real access warrants structural changes that instigate discomfort when white people must listen and accept knowledges that differ from those that they have have unnaturally elevated. In the end, she calls for what feels like a celebration of subjectivities.

"Where We Stand" is the kind of scholarship that leaves readers buzzing, and I really hope it means we get more English translations of Djamila Ribeiro’s work in the near future.