I sat down to write something longer. But ultimately what I wanted to express didn’t need a thousand words. It really just needed six. Folks hate Black girls and women. Last week it was Chloe Bailey and the way folks treated a young woman coming into her own, expressing her sexuality and loving her body for the first time. People weren’t happy until they made that baby cry. Yes, I call her a baby and a grown woman at the same time because I got kids older than her and they both at the[...]
Track 1 of the series Feelin’ Myself: Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj on Sexuality, Agency, [M]othering, Identity and Millennial Feminism Feminist- The person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. ~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Black feminist thought takes many forms including writing, music, poetry, and spoken word— all with the common goal of escaping, surviving or opposing systemic oppression (Collins, 11). Still, while there appears to be an inclusive appro[...]
1991 “This is a circus, it’s a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.” “I will not provide the rope for my own lynching or for further humiliation.” With those declarations, Clarence Thomas would help shape the narrative of discourse on sexual violence and Black women for the next twenty years. Thomas’ rhetoric brought with it recollections of an historical legacy that no one wanted to take part in-- the so[...]
We’ve been here before, most recently in the case of Gabrielle Douglas and most often with First Lady Michelle Obama. And now, Quvenzhanè Wallis. Those extraordinary Black females must be identified as something other than women and girls. So they name them. They shame them. The methods are different but the intent is always the same. So that it is understood that when the rights of women are advocated, Black females are not included in that group. When the Violence Against Women Act is debat[...]
Quite frankly, I blame Michelle Obama. Here we have a First Lady of the United States of America (code name Renaissance) who dared show the world that Black women are comfortable in their own skin. She didn’t fit into any of the socially constructed identities previously created for women of color—no Jezebel, Mammy, Welfare Queen or Sapphire to be found on or near her person. The resulting confusion led to women of color holding their heads just a little bit higher. When little Brown and Bl[...]