BLACK FEMIINISM, MORE THAN A DEFINITION

IN SOLIDARITY WE CANNOT COMPLETELY TRUST


White girls don’t call their men “brothers” and that made their struggle enviably simpler than mine. Racism and the will to survive it creates a sense of intra-racial loyalty that makes it impossible for black women to turn our backs on black men – even in their ugliest and most sexist of moments.

I needed a feminism that would allow us to continue loving ourselves and the brothers who hurt us without letting race loyalty buy us early tombstones. (Examples: Clarence Thomas,Chris Brown, and Bill Cosby Their indignant silences were all chosen over the words of black women. Sides were chosen against black women even over their own damning words and actions)



“Whatcha really wanna know is how I feel about brothas. It’s simple. I love black men like I love no other. And I’m not talking sex or aesthetics, I’m talking about loving y’all enough to be down for the drama —stomping anything that threatens your existence.

Now only a fool loves that hard without asking the same in return.

So yeah, I demand that black men fight sexism with the same passion they battle racism. I want you to annihilate anything that endangers sistas’ welfare —including violence against women —because my survival walks hand in hand with yours. So, my brotha, if loving y’all fiercely and wanting it back makes me a feminist then I’m a feminist. So be it.”
- Joan Morgan, "When The Chickenheads Come Home To Roost"
CONCLUSION: WE HAVE TO HAVE A WHOLE SELF BEFORE WE CAN BE JOINED TO ANOTHER.

Every adult woman should know this.

A knowing of self, reducing self-abnegation to comparable levels with your partner, and wholeness are ultra important when a woman decides to join with another person, a man, in marriage. And all of these things are equally important when a black feminist decides to join forces with black men in opposing a similar (but not the same) oppressions.

Disney's First AFRICAN PRINCESS Will Be WHITE

REBLOGGED FROM HARRIET
by Kesiena Boom



DISNEY'S NEXT PRINCESS FLICK will be "based on the true life story of Virginia man named Jeremiah Heaton, and his quest to fulfill a promise to his daughter, after she asked whether or not she would one day be a real princess.

Heaton did some research and found what he thought was the perfect solution: a stretch of disputed and unclaimed desert land named Bir Tawil situated between Egypt and Sudan. In June 2014, he decided to fly there, plant his flag (designed by his three children) and stake claim to a brand new 'country' that he named The Kingdom of North Sudan, thus making his daughter a 'princess.'

Yeah, you read that right. This film will center around a white American man taking his ass to Africa and essentially calling dibs on a piece of land. Does this story ring any bells? The Scramble for Africa, anyone..."

Read more about this unbeliev-a-bullsh**  from disney here:  http://www.forharriet.com/2015/05/on-disneys-princess-of-north-sudan-and.html#ixzz3ak7SuA9C

WHEN HER FATHER WAS ASKED ABOUT THE CONTROVERSY, HE CLAIMED COLORBLINDNESS.
(You're just shocked, right?) 
How is it that this self proclaimed white virtue of "colorblindness" always turns into an admission that says
"I don't give a rats @$$ about anything but me and mine?"
THE GIFT OF COLORBLIND RACISM IS THE BIGGEST THING HE'S GIVING THIS POOR CHILD.

FAKE DEEP by Cecil Emeke

"If I hear one more poem
written by a man telling women
how to live their lives
by policing their clothes,
bodies,
sexuality,
make up use,
reading habits,
exercise regimes
and cooking skills,

I’m going to slap somebody…

"MUJERISTA" - M U J E R I S T A (Mu-Herrr EEE stah) FILLS A NEED MUCH LIKE "WOMANIST"

IN SOLIDARITY WE CANNOT COMPLETELY TRUST


MUJERISTA: A DEFINITION

"To name oneself is one of the most powerful acts any human person can do. A name provides identification as well as being a conceptual framework, a point of reference, a mental construct used in thinking, understanding, and relating to persons, ideas, movements. Because of this Latina women living in the USA who are keenly aware of how sexism, ethnic prejudice and economic oppression subjugate them, use the term mujerista to refer to themselves and use mujerista theology to refer to the explanations of their faith and its role in their struggle for liberation.

A mujerista is someone who makes a preferential option for Latina women, for their struggle for liberation. Mujeristas struggle to liberate themselves not as individuals but as members of a Latino community. They work to build bridges among Latinas/os while denouncing sectarianism and divisionary tactics. Mujeristas understand that their task is to gather the hopes and expectations of the people about justice and peace. Mujeristas believe that in them, though not exclusively so, God chooses to once again lay claim to, to revindicate, the divine image and likeness made visible in Latinas. Mujeristas are called to gestate new women and new men--Latino people willing to work for the good of the people, knowing that such work requires the denunciation of all destructive sense of self-abnegation."

READ MORE: http://users.drew.edu/aisasidi/Definition1.htm



ON THE MUJERISTA MOVEMENT

    The name given to an enterprise, a social movement, a way of understanding reality, is very important. A name not only identifies but it influences how one thinks about and conceptualizes that to which it refers. This is why a group of Latinas who work in the field of religion and in the churches invented the word MUJERISTA and, together with other Latinas, we have been using it for the last ten years instead of using "Latina feminists."

Why?

    First, in our work with Latinas all around this country we have met with great resistance to the word "feminist." Even if this is mainly due to unjust propaganda, the fact is that many Latinas see the feminist movement as being anti-male, anti-family, and licentious. Second, many of the Latinas who have participated in the feminist movement have not found in it an analysis of reality that takes into account the ethnic/racial prejudice we suffer in the USA.

Repeatedly we have tried to make American feminist(s) understand that we do not suffer sexism apart from ethnic/racial prejudice but that these two types of prejudice reinforce each other to make societal attitudes and practices all the more oppressive for us Latinas. Third, no matter how much we have tried to influence the feminist movement they have not taken our Latina perspective seriously. This is why we have been little more than an appendage that is consider not valuable.

READ MORE:   http://users.drew.edu/aisasidi/essay.htm


CONCLUSION: WE HAVE TO HAVE A WHOLE SELF BEFORE WE CAN BE JOINED TO ANOTHER. Every adult woman should know this. A knowing of self, reducing self-abnegation to comparable levels with your partner, and wholeness are ultra important when a woman decides to join with another person, a man, in marriage. And all of these things are equally important when a latina feminista decides to join forces with white feminists in opposing a similar (but not the same) oppressions.

"WOMANISM IS TO FEMINISM as PURPLE IS TO LAVENDER" -Alice Walker

IN SOLIDARITY WE CANNOT COMPLETELY TRUST

WOMANISM, A DEFINITION

Womanism is a feminist term coined by Alice Walker.

It is a reaction to the realization that “feminism” does not encompass the perspectives Black women.

It is a feminism that is “stronger in color”, nearly identical to “Black Feminism”. However, Womanism does not need to be prefaced by the word “Black”, the word automatically concerns black women.

A Womanist is a woman who loves women and appreciates women’s culture and power as something that is incorporated into the world as a whole. Womanism addresses the racist and classist aspects of white feminism and actively opposes separatist ideologies. It includes the word “man”, recognizing that Black men are an integral part of Black women’s lives as their children, lovers, and family members.

Womanism accounts for the ways in which black women support and empower black men, and serves as a tool for understanding the Black woman’s relationship to men as different from the white woman’s. It seeks to acnowledge and praise the sexual power of Black women while recognizing a history of sexual violence.

This perspective is often used as a means for analyzing Black Women’s literature, as it marks the place where race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect. Womanism is unique because it does not necessarily imply any political position or value system other than the honoring of Black women’s strength and experiences. Because it recognizes that women are survivors in a world that is oppressive on multiple platforms, it seeks to celebrate the ways in which women negotiate these oppressions in their individual lives.

https://afeministtheorydictionary.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/womanism/
CONCLUSION: WE HAVE TO HAVE A WHOLE SELF BEFORE WE CAN BE JOINED TO ANOTHER. Every adult woman should know this. A knowing of self, reducing self-abnegation to comparable levels with your partner, and wholeness are ultra important when a woman decides to join with another person, a man, in marriage. And all of these things are equally important when a womanist decides to join forces with white feminists in opposing a similar (but not the same) oppressions.

DEAR MAN CAVE MEET SHE SHED

The Yoga Studio She Shed on the Left. My Favorite. 
I can imagine a few mats with friends stretching in the yard, then comes green tea in the red room.

For decades now, some of the more affluent families among us have had a man cave. The man cave was a place where men could relax and have manly decor and do manly things without interruption. Before they were called "man caves," with fun things like pool tables in them,  1950s television suggests that this man place was called "the study." 

And now you can buy a house with man cave and a she shed!  And the coolest thing about them is that they are outdoors. Forget the tool shed. Buy a house with a She Shed in the backyard.

Some sheds have a chaise for reading --while you communes with nature. Others have a writing desk (absolutely necessary for producing the next Great American Novel) where you can write --while you commune with nature. Others storage space for bolts of fabric, needles, and thread so that you can sew or get crafty--all while you commune with nature.

Some of them look very California weather friendly. But others look like heated mini-mansions that would stand up to east coast weather without a problem. 

I love them.




SEE MORE PHOTOS AT LIGHTER SIDE FOR REAL ESTATE

PANEL - BLACK WOMEN & THE WORK PLACE

7 MINUTES ON

     - BLACK WOMEN'S CHOICES & EXPERIENCES 

     - "WHEN PATRICIA ARQUETTE SAID 'WOMEN' SHE MEANT WHITE WOMEN." (Wage gap with White Women - White Women get paid 78 cents on the dollar as compared to men. And Black women get paid 64 cents on the dollar as compared to men.)

      - "YOU HAVE TO BE TWICE AS GOOD AS THEM TO GET HALF OF WHAT THEY HAVE" (most black folk have heard this since birth)



(The Nightly Show is on Comedy Central)



Christina Greer (Assistant Professor, Fordham University)

"We need to think about this historically...Let's just take FDR. He had to make concessions with White Southerner....He excluded black domestics....in order to make *The New Deal* happen... A lack of wealth was able to be built."



Jacque Reid (Co-Host New York Live)
   "We are dealing with the same issues tht a lot of black men deal with -with advancing in the work places. And then we're also dealing with  a lot of issues that women deal with - with advancing in the workplace...I had a white manager tell me she was afraid of me."



Issa Rae (Awkward Black Girl Creator/Actor)

    "If I was a white man, I would rule this world right now."


Marina Franklin (Comedian)
    "Talking"  (When Jacque Reid said she asked herself what she was doing to make this woman afraid, Marina answered, "Talking.")
 

   

MY EXPERIENCE:

I  too had a white female co-worker tell me she was afraid.  She was growling at me like she didn't have good sense daily because as a 19 or 20 year old receptionist I was passing HER calls to HER.

Early one morning, I tell her she has no right to yell at me in a calm, pretty much mechanical manner. But she and the other white woman that overheard were the ones that were "afraid."  My fear doesn't count of losing my job for DOING my job doesn't matter.

However, they were not so afraid that they didn't admit to me later, to my face that they were "afraid" I was friendly or work "friends" with both of these white women in a very small office. There were other black females to buffer things, so social gatherings were truly good and fun. But "white friendship" comes at a high cost on the front end, more often than not


There was part with Issa Rae where there was some over-talking. She said the good ole boy network is not necessarily a "racism thing" The white executives picking people they know...etc. SURE IT'S A RACISM THING. That's how the good ole boy network was established. 'We only talk to, consider, people who look like us, talk like us, look like us, enjoy hockey like us, look like us' -- That's an outcome and perpetuation of de facto racism at it's finest. CLICK HERE TO READ and HEAR MORE ABOUT "RACISM WITHOUT RACISTS"


SEE MORE OF THE NIGHTLY SHOW
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/k24f0l/the-nightly-show-tonightly---2-26-15

PANEL - BLACK WOMEN & DATING, THE NIGHTLY SHOW

3 or 4 MINUTE SEGMENT ON BLACK WOMEN'S CHOICES
(The Nightly Show is on Comedy Central)

Issa Rae (Awkward Black Girl Creator/Actor)

     On black men at college "They knew they were a catch.....We have options, so work for us. And that made it unappealing."


Jacque Reid (Co-Host New York Live)

     "Match dot com numbers [on which demographics are desirable as dates] are skewed"... A lot of black people don't go there..They are polling people that aren't necessarily showing up."


Marina Franklin (Comedian)
 
      On interracial dating "Just go young...you can raise them."



Christina Greer (Assistant Professor, Fordham University)
   "Everyone comes with some assembly required"  (Larry Wilmot jokingly called her "The envy of the table" as she is in a two PhD marriage with a black man)

See More:  http://on.cc.com/1wpnfRY

DIANE NASH: Black, Female, Civil Rights, LEADER

Assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy John Seigenthaler recalls a phone conversation with Nash where he tried to dissuade the Nashville Freedom Riders from going to Alabama, warning of the violence ahead.

Nash replied that the Riders had signed their last wills and testaments prior to departure. 

In his interview for Freedom Riders, Seigenthaler recalls, "She in a very quiet but strong way gave me a lecture."
-----------------------

In 1961, some months after having been jailed for requesting lunch at a segregated lunch counter as one of "The Rockville 9," Diane Nash kept the freedom rides going after one the buses was burned by the KKK...Nash argued that it was their duty to continue.

SNCC's Diane Nash played a crucial role in sustaining Freedom Rides initiated by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). From her base in Nashville, coordinated student efforts to continue the rides into Mississippi, recruited new riders, and served as a liaison between the press and the United States Department of Justice.


Nash played a key role in bringing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Montgomery, AL on May 21 in support of the Riders. Tensions developed between King and SNCC members, including Nash, when King refused to participate in the Freedom Rides himself.

She herself was present for the violent siege on the First Baptist Church.

----------

In 2015 she refused to participate in honoring the 50 year anniversary of the Selma because George W. Bush was present, representing the exact opposite of all we believe in. Listen to her speak here on her decision in March of 2015 and what she thinks it is going to take for us to go forward.

READ MORE  http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_nash_diane_1938/


READ MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins

READ MORE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/diane-nash

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE NASH!

A PORTRAIT OF WHITE RACISM FROM 1968?

Sociologist Lawrence Bobo has said that one of things The Civil Rights Movement did was to teach white people what they are allowed to say about race Before this theory ever left Bobo's computer, most of us knew that many (if not most) white people focus only on how things sound when racial issues arise, especially if that racial issue is racism. And for a long time now, it's been apparent to me that what is allowed to be said aloud is the only thing many white people understand about race.

Personally, whenever I hear a white person going on and on about how "politically correct" we all have to be, I started wondering what piece of  the video attitude (racism) is being hidden.


The exclusive attention to how things sound is the reason why the 2015 white racial apologies go on and on and on about which words were chosen to express the racism... rather than apologize for the racism itself. 

SAE's Levi Pettit went on and on and on about using the n-word and never once apologized for his attitude and probably won't ever make an effort to change his attitude. The only thing he did wrong, according to his statement, is use the n-word in conjunction with the word "lynch" 

Deadline wrote an article about so many TV pilots starring black actors in 2015 could possibly be "too much of a good thing" And Deadline's white racial apology consisted of how that sounded too -- word arrangement was the problem again

Cosmo Online's? Yet another apology for how things sounded and appeared and "insensitivity" as opposed to how they were during the decision making stages

------------------

You won't get very far into this video before you are wondering how different 2015 United States really is from the 1968 United States. The title is "Portrait Of Black America" but white racism and white fears of black radicals and black separatists are at the center of every discussion.

One conclusion at end of this TV Special was that  few white people have racist attitudes --even after racism was defined as "superiority" minutes before the results of this 1968 national poll was shown

The entire video is interesting. But it is the seven or so minutes of white racist attitudes beginning at 5 minutes and 30 seconds is eerily familiar. 

If 49% of white people have had rather virulent strains of racism handed down not via DNA but via dinner conversation, stereotypes on television, and biased news reporting by the main stream media for decades on end and they think racism is mostly words, then how will the majority of white people come to realize that the extremist white cops that pop off and murder the black and unarmed are being nurtured at the center of their culture?

And since white America is so deep into words and how things sound in regards to all things racial, how is it white America doesn't realize that an increase in violent, separatist white rhetoric from groups like The Tea Party pours gas on the fire inside the bully-type policeman?

If white people don't recognize racism as an internal attitude that sometimes shows up externally, then the white cop murderers having black friends and still acting in racist ways will never make sense.  That is, any number of the white cop murderers may have black friends that they consider "a credit to their race" They may have one, two or ten of these "black friends." 

But these cop murderers also have the knowledge that the black people whom they do not know personally have less social value and therefore can be killed any time the mood to kick someone smaller arises.  And this describes a race based superiority a.k.a racism that leads to murder.

So the implied question from 1968 remains: How will white people clean up their side of the street if they aren't willing to change the racist aspect of white culture?

And in 2015, it seems like the question becomes how do you get the average white person to connect attitudes, words, and actions when racism is the subject, just like they do in every other aspect of life?  Isn't that the only way they are going to reduce the number of white racist cops being sent out from their midst?