11 WAYS READING OCTAVIA BUTLER WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Feeling Rebloggy

"A lot of people shy away from science fiction. A lot of readers are afraid of the genre, or assume that it is all aliens and dystopias. But after reading Kindred(which transports you back to a 19th-century plantation) or Fledgling (a vampire science fiction novel), you'll know that science fiction is much more than space stations and robots. Science fiction can be anything, take place anywhere, and include everyone. After reading Butler, you will know that there is no place sci-fi can't take you."

1. You'll Stop Making Excuses For Why You Don't Go After What You Want

2. You'll Learn The Term "Afrofuturism," And Understand Why It Matters

3. You'll Never Worry About Being A Woman In A Man's World Again...

11. You'll know black women can do anything. (yes, that's my addition)


Read the rest of the list

http://www.bustle.com/articles/73251-when-you-read-octavia-butler-be-prepared-for-these-10-things-to-happen

RESPECTABILITY POLITICS REFLECTS A FEARFUL, POWERLESSLY STUCK MIND

Feeling Rebloggy

ORIGINAL STORIES ON  Niya Kenny and the black female student beaten by  a South Carolina Schools "Resource Officer"

http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/10/when-teacher-calls-officer-into.html

http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/10/officer-fired-after-niya-kenny-video.html

JUST A THOUGHT

Author Unknown

There's always a few.

Thankfully though? Only a few.

OFFICER FIRED!!! After Niya Kenny Video

Ben Fields

"An attorney for the South Carolina officer fired for slamming a student to the ground and tossing her several feet says his client's actions were "justified and lawful."

Video of the arrest sparked widespread outrage and questions about what role police should play in schools.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott suspended Deputy Ben Fields after the incident, and fired him Wednesday."

CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/us/south-carolina-school-arrest-videos/

HERO
NIYA KENNY

Previous Story: WHEN A TEACHER CALLS AN OFFICER INTO THE CLASSROOM
Apparently "refusing to participate" is refusing to give up a cell phone and leave the classroom.

The ability to call a Resource Officer for such nonsense is ridiculous. The teacher needs to be reprimanded as well. 


But the "Resource Officer" has been fired, which is right and correct. (You can tell that this was done reluctantly if you watch the right  newscast. Protest and exposure WORKED this time.)




Apparently "Resource Officers" were put into schools after Columbine. There supposed to be there for safety of the children from other children and adults with guns and such. If you wouldn't call 911, apparently you shouldn't call the "Resource Officer" either.

Niya Kenny can actually sing a different song, than most of us. She can sing, "I fought the law and I won" and it'll be true.

Multiple are available at the link belowhttp://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/us/south-carolina-school-arrest-videos/

WHEN A TEACHER CALLS AN OFFICER INTO THE CLASSROOM

BECAUSE OF YOUR CHILD,
YOU NEED TO GET IN THAT @$$
IF THAT CHILD DID NOT 
TAKE A SWING AT THAT TEACHER

BECAUSE THAT TEACHER IS THE MAIN PROBLEM
* * * * *

Apparently, there's this new thing in school since I was a kid.  There's a person called a "Resource Officer" running around loose in schools now. And apparently the "Resource Officer" comes when the teacher thinks he or she needs physical assistance in the classroom.


In the link below, within the cell phone video, there are images of this "Resource Officer" throwing this black girl around. All you can really see is her legs flying in the air. Niya Kenny, a classmate, took the video while loudly protesting this girls abuse. And she was arrested for her trouble.
(see the next story - cop has been fired due to viral video and online protests)

Hero 
Niya Kenny of Spring Valley High School in South Carolina

And all this came to pass because a teacher said this girl "wasn’t participating in class, [and] when the teacher asked her to leave but she refused."


My first question was what does this "not participating" mean? And why would a teacher be able to call a "Resource Officer" to handle that? Has this teacher, a black male, missed what's been happening black people in the news?



But the thing I'm stuck on is a teacher being able to call anybody at all because of "not participating," much less anybody called an "officer."

What is "not participating?

Is it a refusal to answer questions?

Is it a refusal to speak when spoken to?

What the heck is "not participating?" 


Whatever it is, it doesn't sound "officer" worthy.  And I'm supposed to think the conservatives aren't stone crazy when they talk about teachers being able to carry guns in school to protect students (ala Sandy Hook)?  I'd sooner have the entire student body strapped.


So was the teacher's maneuver meant to communicate  'how dare you defy me in THE SLIGHTEST WAY?'  It kinda sounds like it, doesn't it?  "Not participating" I hope this teacher is not Ben Carson's psychological twin. I hope the teacher has a better story than what we've heard so far.  And maybe he does. Then again, maybe the Resource Officer is the only one that's extra stupid.    

However what makes this story even more interesting is the following comment a woman made on "Resource Officers" in general:

"I had to take a school here in Richardson TX to task for sending an officer to escort my daughter out of class.

The teacher, a 25 year old, 6'4 white guy decided he should call the resource officer to remove my daughter from class instead of simply writing her up for her cell phone going off in class (while it was on the charging station he provided against district policy).

My daughter called me as she was being escorted out and I had the pleasure of hearing the white officer curse my 13 year old daughter out. The reason the teacher did this, he didn't want a confrontation to start in his class so he called the officer.

I have witnessed teachers call resource officers for stupid things like this in at least 3 states I have lived in . The reality is that officers are only to be called in for things such as fights or criminal offenses. Teachers know this, principles know this, and the districts know. We were able to get the officer removed from resources duty, but parents I encourage you to read the district policies and stay on their asses. They are gunning for black girls, more so than black boys!"

 ~RD

If this woman is correct, then the cowardly teachers and the Resource Officers, both, are abusing their power.


"Stay Woke" as they say. Keep your eyes open and aimed at your child's school. Do the "Resource Officers" work at your child's school? How many? What kind of incidents have they been called to the classroom for? I'd find out if I were you.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2015/10/student-arrested-after-standing-up-for-classmate-assaulted-at-spring-valley-high-school/

WHY I ABSOLUTELY AM AN ANGRY BLACK WOMAN

Feeling Rebloggy



Because when I was five, my kindergarten classmate told me I couldn’t be the princess in the game we were playing because black girls couldn’t be princesses. Because I was in third grade the first time a teacher seemed shocked at how “well-spoken” I was. Because in fourth grade I was told my crush didn’t like black girls. Because in sixth grade a different crush told me I was pretty — for a black girl. Because in 7th grade my predominantly black suburban neighborhood was nicknamed “Spring Ghettos” instead of calling it its name (Spring Meadows). Because I was in 8th grade the first time I was called an Oreo and told that I “wasn’t really black” like it was a compliment.

Because in 9th grade when I switched schools a boy told me he knew I had to be mixed with something to be so pretty. Because in 10th grade...



read more:
https://thsppl.com/why-i-m-absolutely-an-angry-black-woman-2cf74c95828#.jsjo7c8wu
do yourself a favor. read it. she goes all the way through the grown up years.

TO BE POOR IN THE UNITED STATES

IS TO HAVE A TARGET  

PAINTED ON YOUR BACK

"In March, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit accusing Judicial Correction Services (a private for profit "probation company) and the city of Clanton, Alabama of operating an illegal racketeering scheme to extort money from poor residents.
JCS offers municipal courts its services at no cost to them. People who can’t pay traffic tickets and other minor fines in a lump sum are placed on what is known as “pay-only probation,” and judges assign JCS to collect payments. The company profits from fees it charges – typically $40 a month – to people making payments, prolonging their ordeal and making it more difficult to pay off their debt. Company officials often threaten people with jail to secure payment, and many defendants end up behind bars."

I'm scared to death of ever being poor in this country. And I think all but the infinitely strong should be too.

Somewhere near 45% of the people living well in this country will tell the poor it's their own fault that they are poor, then take a shot at hitting the bulls-eye themselves just like JCS did.  They'll try to find to make money off the poor without the slightest twinge of conscience. This is, at least in part, what nearly tipped this country into a second depression. The financial collapse near 2007 started with subprime mortgages, a lot of which that were sold to poor black people, that were adjustable rate mortgages that started at a high rate and then to an even higher rate 1, 2, or 3 years later.

I'm still trying to figure out how banks made that sound good to anybody with a conscience. People desperate for house are desperate for a house. And when subprime started people thought the economy was going to always get better forever. People just assumed they'd get enough raises to cover the adjustment upward. And for a long time a significant number of these subprime mortgage holders were right. They could be gouged and still make the payments. But then the economy took a down turn--like it's supposed to. Economies do not climb, getting better forever. But greedy businessmen who knew better made those loans anyway.

The same kind of greed had to be driving the profit probation system. But how did a for profit probation system ever sound good to anybody who wasn't within the company making a profit? How does a town or city do that to it's citizens?

I hope the SPLC gets the Alabama city itself on the hook for some very large fines. The federal government should let them pay those fines over a long time period too, for a $4000 monthly fee.  

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2015/10/19/splc-private-probation-company%E2%80%99s-decision-leave-alabama-welcome-news-indigent

CHESCALEIGH SAYS STOP FETISHIZING MIXED RACE BABIES

Feeling Rebloggy


A mixed race person a heck of a lot more conscious than some said,  "I hate it when white people when say walk up to me and say,   'You're so pretty because mixed-race people are just so much cuter. I wanna ask cuter than who?  It's like they're saying, 'Thank God you got some white in you to erase some of that ugly' black, Asian, or POC DNA."

And I say,
When people of color say this sort of thing, they are doing the same thing, only it's self hatred.

When mixed race people of color say the same thing about themselves, it's probably self hatred as well. They might as well go home and smack the parent that's a person of color in the face as much as they respect the darker/more-ethnic parent.

The 'oh my god they are so cute because they're mixed' conversation is a colorism/white-supremacy conversation because this conversation mostly comes up when the child is a pale person of color, and the other parent is white.

Halle Berry                Vanessa Williams

By the way, bi-racial and multi-racial is mostly about social choices as far as the black community is concerned because many if not most black people are "mixed." During slavery, rape was one of the benefits of ownership. We're all shades of the rainbow as a result.

While the genetics of skin color is a lot more complicated than dropping tablespoons of chocolate into a glass of milk, when it comes to black and white people having children together,  Vanessa Williams (two light-skinned black parents) looks about as "mixed" as Halle Berry (one black parent of unknown skin-tone and one white parent)

---which is why they both are legitimately able to identify, by choice, as "African American."    

A List of People Not Responsible for Damaging the Legacy of Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show

Feeling Rebloggy while giggling

1.  Ebony magazine. This includes Ebony Editor-in-Chief Kierna Mayo, Ebony Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux and everyone else associated with the magazine.

2. The November cover of Ebony magazine.

3. The Root, The Grio, Clutch, Essence, Colorlines, VerySmartBrothas, For Harriet, Blavity and any other black-owned and/or black-managed publication that has published pieces critical of Cosby.

- The Root
Very Smart Brothas

lol ---> READ MORE OF THE LIST http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/10/a_list_of_people_not_responsible_for_damaging_the_legacy_of_bill_cosby_and.html

WHITE SUFFRAGETTES, BLACK WOMEN, SELF-ESTEEM, AND OTHER-ESTEEM

These t-shirts were created and worn by actresses in order to support the movie Suffragette.  I fully expect that this movie, set in Britain, will be almost entirely about the feminist type rights of  white women.  Of this, I never had a doubt.  But let these t-shirts sink into your brain for a minute

In response to the irate black women -- some of them black feminists and some black women feeling quite superior because they do not identify as 'feminists' -- a well-meaning white woman wrote the following:

 * * * * *

"I know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. **I would rather be a rebel than a slave.** I would rather die than submit; and that is the spirit that animates this movement…..I mean to be a voter in the land that gave me birth or they shall kill me, and my challenge to the Government is: kill me or give me my freedom: I shall force you to make that choice."

In that version, it's obvious Pankhurst's talking about British women in the nineteenth century rebelling against their lack of rights and representation. Taken out of context (and without any knowledge of who Emmeline Pankhurst was), it could be radically misinterpreted. I'm personally not keen on equating a lack of representation and rights for women with slavery, and the fact that all the models are white women is equally troubling.

 * * * * *

This explanation could only make even partial sense to white women (I hope)

Britain knows all about slavery and always has. Pankhurst couldn't have been ignorant of what slavery was or was not whether executed in Britain or in the United States. And she especially couldn't have been but so ignorant in 1913 as she was alive and present when chattal type slaver was in newspapers as *a current event* having been born in 1858.

Equating the experiences of unable-to-vote well-to-do white women and middle class white women to that of slaves is problematic in 1913 or 2013, in real life or in the movie "Suffragist."  The fact that white women associated with the movie erased black people from their minds as they compared their own experience to slavery is no where near surprising.

But securing rights for themselves without thinking of others in the same situation is hardly exclusive to white women.


It's not like black men held back on getting their right to vote so that black women would get the right the vote at the same time as black men did. 

This is something I've been thinking about quite a bit since reading that Sojourner Truth was very much in favor of making sure black women got the vote at the same time as black men. 

Let me say it again.

Sojourner Truth was not in favor of getting the vote for black men without getting the vote for women at the same time. She wanted to make sure black women and black men stepped into equality together. She did not want black men to have too much power over black women.


And I see Truth's point. Don't you?


I think black women saying, "Yes, we won't demand that you take care of securing our rights at the same time that you secure your own"  was the beginning of a pattern of black women agreeing to be, not worthless, but worth less. --just like white women continue to be worth less to white men.


A lot of white women were surprised that Barack Obama overtook Hillary Clinton with relative ease. But I was not.


I worked in a place that was 90% men for nearly two decades. And white men in charge were racist but when white men ACTUALLY NEEDED something in the form of brains and know-how, they gravitated to black men first not white women.  

And there is some precedent for white men turning to black men when they were in trouble.


When white men in the North were losing the Civil War, the turned to black men to fight. When white men were losing WWII, that's when they let black men fight.  Most importantly, when white male led families were losing their homes to foreclosure in 2007 and 2008, enough white men --maybe a 1/3 or 1/4-- ENOUGH of them turned to Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton which gave the United States elected it's first black president.

Now that you've considered how much white femaleness is actually worth in this country. You should consider just how much femaleness is worth within the black community as well.  

Black Female Civil Rights Leaders had to fight Black men, including Martin Luther King, to get a single black woman, Daisy Bates, 60 to 90 seconds worth time on stage during the program during The March On Washington. Gloria Richardson, Rosa Parks, and other black women were actually sent home in a cab for trying to speak to the press and were in that cab during Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream Speech."  Septima Clark all but flat out called King a sexist at times.

The Black Panthers are famous for free breakfasts, school lunches, free ambulances, and self-defense against police brutality. But they are not so famous for a number of sexist beliefs made even stronger by resentment over black women being in leadership positions according to Elaine Brown. Brown herself even admits to using patriarchal structures to help her rule the Black Panthers (with an iron fist?)...until black male panthers beat up and broke the jaw the person most responsible for the success of the Black Panther School, Regina Davis.

Davis was beaten so badly by black male panthers that she had to be taken to a hospital with a broken jaw. Why? She asserted her authority and took some of the male members to task for not following through on some instructions she'd given.

"Brown writes that when she told Newton of her anger over the attack, he refused to break solidarity with the men, challenging her to a debate in the Central Committee."

 http://socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/2291

Most recently, Black Lives Matter, started by black women, has had to fight to have the murders of black women be counted and protested at all. Black Women loyal to black men had to beg for reciprocation of care when black women are killed by creating #SayHerName. 

All of this is why I can't get Sojourner Truth's shocking position out of my head. ~~No votes for blacks until there are votes for women too because the includes black women.~~

Black men's response, "We'll take of ourselves first, then we will look to you" has become a pattern so ingrained in the black community that black women have not been able to overcome it some 150 years later.

AND

My own brain is so perfectly soaked in patriarchythat it didn't even occur to me that I should have found it strange that white feminists of the 1800s chose to work with black MEN like Frederick Douglass instead of working with black WOMEN to secure the vote for ALL blacks.

And then these white women had the nerve to be surprised when black men thought men getting their rights first (or only) was natural and correct...just like their white husbands, white brothers, and white fathers. It seems to me that black men had to have been perfectly honest about getting on equal footing with white men being their primary goal post-slavery. And I'm pretty sure, that for most black people--not just black men-- that this is still the primary goal for the black community.

Equality between shades of men is going to make everything hokey-dokey for everybody. Yeah. Okay. Let's look at how that's worked out for white women.

They're married and giving birth to the most powerful group, white males, and yet if they aren't covered from head to toe daily, always get home before dark, stay in a relationship with one man for at least ten years, and don't ever drink alcohol, there's still a very good chance they won't be believed when they've been raped by another white male.

In regards to the black community, I keep wondering how different The March On Washington would have been. Diane Nash would have spoken about keeping the Freedom Rides Going. Rosa Parks would have let the crowd know that nobody would even know who she or Martin Luther King is, if it hadn't been for Jo Anne Gibson Robinson and her Women's Political Council conceiving of and starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Martin Luther King was one of the, then unknown, preachers to whom Robinson and the women passed leaflets for distribution in church.   


Black women wouldn't have "had to be" co-founders of N.O.W. (The National Organization for Women) as a result of their shabby treatment during the March On Washington. Either feminism truly would have been a white woman issue or white women would have had to follow black women as feminist examples because we were so successful at partnership with our men. White women would have seen that black men staying beside us instead of trying to keep us one to two steps behind whispering "You are my Queen" the entire time.   


I wonder how different the Black Panthers would have been too.


Eldridge Cleaver's crazy, rapist @$$ would never have been allowed in or allowed to beat Kathleen Cleaver --no matter how profound his words on this or that were. Angela Davis might have become a Black Panther. Huey Newton would have to live up to the speech below when Regina Davis was beaten so badly. I haven't finished reading the autobiographies I have on the Panthers, but it doesn't sound like Newton even found the courage to apologize for having failed black women so miserably in that instance. If he had, we'd all know Regina Davis's name, wouldn't we?

Newton's Speech

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/newtonq.html

#SayHerName would never have been necessary.

In the black community
,
"Nobody's perfect!" 

would never be uttered 

about a white man beating a black man

OR

a black man beating black woman either,

no matter how otherwise benevolent,

talented, rich, or famous 

that man turned out to be.

NEVER  

I don't want to victim blame. But I really do wonder how all of our black lives would be different if we, as black women, had held black men's feet to the fire from the very start, if we had insisted that we ALL MOVE together, each and every step of the way from the moment we stepped out of slavery into the rest of American History.



Our black girls would know their own black female history so much better and so would our black boys. And there wouldn't be black women silly enough to think feminism means something other than a desire for gender equality not sameness -- same as anti-racism means a desire for equality and not sameness. Men like Ferdinand Barnett would be a model for black manhood instead of any black man at all who can earn 6 figures per year, no matter how low he is.

Ida B Wells- Barnett and Ferdinand Barnett

But I'm just dreaming. I'm all but 95% certain that black people crossed the ocean with just as much patriarchy on board the boat as we found here to copy from the white folk.


The world is the way it is. So we have to face the hard facts.


The only group consistently advocating for black women is black women. We need to hold fast to the black men who see sexism as a thing as real as racism like they are rarer than finding fist sized diamonds in your own backyard because they are. We need to see other groups, black men and white women, as potential allies that need to be called on the carpet from time to time OR often as the case may be.


And I know which group I care about valuing me most. Don't you?

COLONEL MERRY TENGESDAL ONLY BLACK AMERICAN U-2 PILOT

African-American U-2 spy plane pilot promoted to colonel after a decade flying risky missions at altitudes of 13 MILES

• Lt Colonel Merryl Tengesdal joined the elite U-2 program in 2004 
• 
  The Bronx native is one of eight female U-2 pilots and the only African-American female pilot 
• 
  Tengesdal has logged 3,400 flight hours, 330 combat hours and served missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2956108/I-ve-Inspiring-female-African-American-U-2-spy-plane-pilot-promoted-colonel-decade-flying-risky-missions-altitudes-13-MILES.html

Pedophile Culture?

"I need you, and your sympathetic readers, to understand this grave truth: pedophilia is not nearly as taboo, or shameful, or repulsive to society, as you claim it is. 

I wish it was. 

Much to the detriment of females the world over, your desires are reflected back to you infinitely, mass-produced on a global scale to meet an ever-growing demand. This male-supremacist world welcomes you with open arms, and your every wish is its command. I dare say you are safer to be yourself, than girls are. " 

~Alicen Grey 

I have been reading old books or books about what was happening in the United States at the turn of century to about 1950.  I've mostly been reading the History of Black Women and History from a black female perspective.  I've also read articles online to supplement the books I'm reading. The thing that I've noticed about the first half of the 1900s is that "sexy" and "child-like" went together too often for my tastes.  In fact, I found myself rather nauseous.

Then, I started thinking back to some of the poses I've seen of 1950s and 1960s models in white magazines. Child like and empty-eyed was THE thing for a while. I've seen innocent poses of black women but not child-like. For some reason I don't see child-like sexy coming out of black women just like black women never really got that deep into baby-talking a man into doing x, y, z.  I think most of the black women photographed and placed in black magazines in 1950s and 60s circled around "dignity" because that's what we as black people were holding onto with both hands at the time. That's my guess anyway.

But I see traces of men wanting sexy-child-like woman in predominantly white magazines today. Traces. I thought. And I don't really think I've seen that in black magazines, but my magazine days are way behind me. Still, imagine my surprise when I read the article below which makes reference to another article at Salon.com written in 2015 that is actually titled, "I'm A Pedophile Not A Monster."


Pedophilia. Excuse me, but if you don't get that sh*t treated with a therapist--if that's even possible, you are a monster-in-waiting.  

Don't believe article exists? Check it out right here:   http://www.salon.com/2015/09/21/im_a_pedophile_but_not_a_monster/

You know what? The fact that this article was published at all means I might have to wake up to the fact of "Pedophile Culture" And I just got my head wrapped around "Rape Culture." A few years ago, I really thought feminists were overstating the case of how acceptable and defensible rape is until I heard:

1)  the excuses made by a judge for the 30 year old white male rapist of a 14 year old girl, Latina, because her behavior came across older than her years...or some such bullsh**.The girl committed suicide at some point between the rape becoming public, arrest, and prosecution. The judge's original 31 days sentence, after protests, was changed to 10 years. 

2)  the excuses made for the Steubenville Rapists. Oh my Gawd, I had no idea people could actually part their lips to say having sex with someone that is clearly unconscious is not rape. I really had no idea this was up for debate until this case became relatively infamous, nationwide

3)  the excuses made during  #IAmJada. This girl was raped at a party, much like the Steubenville girl, only this little black chick STOOD UP FOR HERSELF!!! I was proud of her. But man, the fact that teens are hardhearted enough to pull this crap scared me. 

4)  the excuses made for Bill Cosby.





And now, here comes "Pedophile Culture."  (Head down, shaking my head)  I actually might have to start watching out for signs of "Pedophile Culture." I can't believe it. But I have to believe it. Because if this article is seen as legitimate at a reputable magazine, then pedophile culture is either already here or it's knocking on the damn door. 

* * * * *
I'll let you find the original article yourself at the link above. But here, again, is the rebuttal to that nonsense:  

"I need you, and your sympathetic readers, to understand this grave truth: pedophilia is not nearly as taboo, or shameful, or repulsive to society, as you claim it is.

I wish it was.

Much to the detriment of females the world over, your desires are reflected back to you infinitely, mass-produced on a global scale to meet an ever-growing demand. This male-supremacist world welcomes you with open arms, and your every wish is its command. I dare say you are safer to be yourself, than girls are.  

~Alicen Grey 

READ MORE REBUTTAL

http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/09/28/youve-heard-of-rape-culture-but-have-you-heard-of-pedophile-culture/

I'M LONELY SO I DO LONELY THINGS

“1. I’m lonely so I do lonely things
2. Loving you was like going to war; I never came back the same.
3. You hate women, just like your father and his father, so it runs in your blood.
4. I was wandering the derelict car park of your heart looking for a ride home.
5. You’re a ghost town I’m too patriotic to leave.
6. I stay because you’re the beginning of the dream I want to remember.
7. I didn’t call him back because he likes his girls voiceless.
8. It’s not that he wants to be a liar; it’s just that he doesn’t know the truth.
9. I couldn’t love you, you were a small war.
10. We covered the smell of loss with jokes.
11. I didn’t want to fail at love like our parents.
12. You made the nomad in me build a house and stay.
13. I’m not a dog.
14. We were trying to prove our blood wrong.
15. I was still lonely so I did even lonelier things.
16. Yes, I’m insecure, but so was my mother and her mother.
17. No, he loves me he just makes me cry a lot.
18. He knows all of my secrets and still wants to kiss me.
19. You were too cruel to love for a long time.
20. It just didn’t work out.
21. My dad walked out one afternoon and never came back.
22. I can’t sleep because I can still taste him in my mouth.
23. I cut him out at the root, he was my favorite tree,
     rotting, threatening the foundations of my home.
24. The women in my family die waiting.
25. Because I didn’t want to die waiting for you.
26. I had to leave, I felt lonely when he held me.
27. You’re the song I rewind until I know all the words and I feel sick.
28. He sent me a text that said “I love you so bad.”
29. His heart wasn’t as beautiful as his smile
30. We emotionally manipulated one another until we thought it was love.
31. Forgive me, I was lonely so I chose you.
32. I’m a lover without a lover.
33. I’m lovely and lonely.
34. I belong deeply to myself .”

― Warsan Shire

5 to 6 BLACK CHURCHES BURN AT HANDS OF ARSONISTS NEAR FERGUSON

Feeling Rebloggy

This most recent wave of church fires are taking place in North St. Louis, near Ferguson, where racial tensions have been particularly high since the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. The department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is investigating the arsons.

On October 8th, the first fire was set at the Bethel Non-Denominational Church. Between October 10th and October 14th, three more churches were burned — New Northside Missionary Baptist Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and the New Testament Church of Christ. In the early hours of Saturday morning, another fire was set at the New Life Missionary Baptist Church. All 5 churches are within three miles of each other."

~U.S. UNCUT
via Latina Feminista

READ MORE AT U.S. UNCUThttp://usuncut.com/black-lives-matter/black-churches-burning-ferguson-area/


READ MORE AT ABC NEWShttp://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fires-st-louis-area-churches-investigation-34580334

LOVING THE UNSINKABLE EFFIE BROWN'S MAMA

Background:

Maybe you missed it. Matt Damon made this outrageous statement that pretty much said people of color need to be in front of the camera but not behind the camera. Effie Brown's shocked response was caught on camera. 

Effie starts objecting to the only black character in a movie being a prostitute named "Harmony" who is slapped by her  white pimp.  

During the course of discussion Damon responds,  "When we're talking about diversity you do it in the casting of the film but not the casting of the show [Translation: People of color can be cast but don't need to be behind the camera]....Do you want the best director? [Translation: Diversity hiring is oppositional to merit hiring]

Effie Brown took exception to what he said. I dare say she was aghast. Then she pushed back. 




When Effie was asked, "Why did you argue with Damon?"

"I had no choice really. I’ve been black and a woman all my life. 

I have worked in this business for 20 years. I’m 43. It was one of those things. Literally in that moment, was I going to risk public humiliation, bringing up this opinion, or deal with shame and excuses: 'You let that go by?' That’s a big responsibility. I was more afraid of my mother: 'That’s how we raised you and sacrificed, that’s it? When the time was for you to stand and be counted?' 

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/the-unsinkable-effie-brown-makes-hbos-project-greenlight-a-must-see-im-not-his-favorite-person-20151012

PSA: PSEUDO-DEAF DOCTORS, SEXISM, AND DEATH

Women, girls, and anybody who cares about women and girls, really needs to have their wits about them in the doctors office. And you can probably double down on that extra effort if you're a black female 

public domain

* * * * *

Not too long ago, I had an online discussion about an article much like this one. I'd had experiences with doctors hurting me and telling me it's nothing. But I thought it was just bad luck on my part. I thought I had a tendency to choose particularly insensitive doctors. 

For example, I had a doctor give me an injection for pain then start working pretty close to instantly without asking me if I was numb. Then he said, "It didn't hurt that bad" after I yelped.  Something like this happened with him more than once, I'm sorry to say. I guess I decided he was just having an off day the first time because he spoke to me politely.

I was truly ill at the time. I didn't know for sure what was wrong or how bad it was. I was scared and I didn't want to start over. However, I must admit the deciding factor in firing my doctor was his treating me like an idiot.


This now ex-doctor of mine got an emergency call and he had to go to the front desk. He wound up leaving me alone in his office for a long time. I started thinking that the file on his desk was mine since it had my name on it. When I thought about my insurance co-pays I decided that I was sure it was mine So, reached across the desk and dragged it into my lap to read it. A half dozen or pages in I found out he'd removed a polyp a couple of months back. He'd told me that all he'd done was look around inside with the camera.

There had never been any mention of any polyp at any time despite my having several appointments with him after he removed it.   

I kinda felt like a dummy for not moving on to another doctor sooner since he was hurting me too. But when I didn't really understand that this was sexism related until I discussed this with other women. I couldn't believe how many other women had the same stories. I couldn't believe it.

During those discussions I thought back to my mother's hysterectomy. I thought about how we told the doctor to avoid removing her ovaries. When I asked him why he did removed them  anyway he said, "That's standard for a woman her age."

All this made me wonder how many other women have lost organs or their lives because they were ignored while at the doctor's office?

By the way, doctor's probably don't hear too well when children speak either.

I knew a man who took his child to the doctor for headaches. His little girl was 5 or 6 and she was complaining of headaches over and over. What 5 year old does that? The doctor dismissed it and he dismissed it during more than one office visit. This co-worker and his wife believed the doctor, sans any X-ray, MRI, or any other sort of proof, because the doctor had been the trusted family doctor for years. It turned out the child had a brain tumor in her head for two months longer than she should have. Thank God that turned out okay.

Changing doctors, complaining in writing, prayer, and second opinions are anybody's best friend, but they are especially a female person's best friend.

As a black woman finding a black female doctor or some other woman of color is probably our best option because, I don't know about you, but I've had some nasty experiences with white female --very likely racist-- doctors as well.

source: NIH

READ MORE: 
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism/410515/?utm_source=SFFB

BILL COSBY PROTECTORS: I'M STILL HERE EVEN AFTER THEY CAME FOR ME

Link to Part 1 - I'll be here when they come for me

Can I step into my wide ranging feelings about black female unprotectedness for a minute?

But before I do that. Let me say that I hope Ebony Magazine has some content to go with this cover. 
More than that, I hope some of that content compares Anita Hill's treatment to Beverly Johnson's and allows that to show just how little black women are valued by a sizable portion black community. 

"If you give a woman -- or a man, for that matter -- without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape," Obama said Wednesday at a White House press conference.

I'm so grateful our black president and a handful of black men on my social media pages stood up to be counted as against drugging-and-raping on behalf of their daughters AND especially on behalf of their sons.


The hope I have for us to be united as a people was dimming until the very, VERY few, proud, and brave black people stood up for the women Cosby admitted to drugging...so as to have sex with them, taking away consent -a.k.a "rape."


I was beginning to think fake unity was going to overtake and engulf any true unity we might attain.


After watching so many black people
stand firmly behind Ray Rice's bullsh**,
while actually using the very same words
to defend the Rice knock out video
that white folks used
to defend the Eric Garner choke out video,I had to realize that self-serving hypocrisy
is as colorless and gender-less as self-hatred.
  


ON A SIDE NOTE:
JAMES BROWN ON RAY RICE AND HEALTHY, RESPECTFUL MANHOOD 


How does a black person with any sense of dignity at all ever utter the words, "Cosby wasn't found guilty in a court of law, therefore he's not guilty," AFTER - 

Trayvon Martin 

Rekia Boyd 

Eric Garner 

Mike Brown

 How does that leave the self-respecting black person's mouth, much less a black woman's? How?


Cosby drugging women so as to have sex with them, a.k.a rape, is a bitter pill to swallow. I know it is because I swallowed it myself.  And I knew I had to swallow that bitterness even as I knew I wasn't going to have much company.

In the black community, black women and what happens to them matters much, much less than the material success of a black man. I'd estimate that a very small fraction of black men and less than half of black women stood up for...

Anita Hill

Rhianna

Janay Palmer

or 

Beverly Johnson

 

...after they were attacked.


So few black people said "boo" after Rekia Boyd's murderer was set free that some black folk don't recognize Boyd's name to this day -- much less her murderer's name. And the few that did say "boo" about Rekia on my social media pages? They were nearly all black women.

To add insult to injury, immediately following the damn-near-no-protest for Rekia Boyd there was a protest you could see from outer space for Freddie Gray.  This is one of the many reasons why #SayHerName became so necessary a supplement to the black female created #BlackLivesMatter. 
Sandra Bland might have been the most public beneficiary of #SayHerName attention.  So there has been some good news on the black woman front this year. But the overwhelming trend in the black news shows that black women and what happens to them matters much less than the material success of a black man. So much less.

Even black children are worth practically nothing compared to keeping an example of shining black,  male, success up on a pedestal. I couldn't believe it when I heard ESPN commentators defending a black football player who was on video talking casually about DAMAGING his bandaged son (who is also in the video) after having a previous child abuse charge laid on him.

 

All of this is why "Bill Cosby was set up" claims should have been expected.   However, I am still trying to figure out how Cosby was "only" cheating on his "Queen," is okay for some folk.

This is the other excuse: The sex was consensual with all of them -- not a few of them, not most of them, all of them. Therefore he's not a rapist. Cosby is just somebody who repeatedly cheated on his "Queen" at Hef's place and any other place he might be able to drop a Quaalude into a drink unobserved. 

Those unaware of black female history think defense of white womanhood would have stopped Cosby from getting away with raping so many white women (as they pretend light-skinned women also accusing Cosby don't exist). Well I got news for you. Ida B Wells found out that white womanhood isn't worth THAT much.

Be in awe. Mark this year down in history.
 Large numbers of black men are pretending to
NOT SEE light-skinned women.
They only see white female accusers of Bill Cosby.
Must be a new strain of colorblindness.

At the turn of the 19th century, defense of white womanhood was trotted out as a beard for white greed so that foreign investors wouldn't be put off by the animalistic behavior of the white south. That is, when 300, 400 or 500 hundred black people, mostly black men, were being lynched per year at the turn of the 19th century, only 1/3 of the black men lynched were ever even accused of rape according to Ida B Wells (Author of the First Anti-Lynching campaign)  Also, according to Ida B Wells, half of that 1/3 accused of rape were likely in interracial relationships.


The other 2/3rds that were lynched were killed because they had some property or business a white man wanted. Other times the lynchings took place for the pure, white, male pleasure of extracting a feeling of power over something as trivial as a black man "mouthing off."


In other words, white women weren't valued highly enough in 1800s and 1900s to justify very much lynching on their behalf. They were only valued enough to cover up lynching. And white women sure weren't valued enough in the 1960s, 70s, 80s etc. to fuel a rape conspiracy against a black actor (not a black president) that stretches over an entire country, over several decades, over more than one ethnicity -- most of the women no darker than his extra, extra pale wife, Camille. 

Pssst! Am I the only to notice that Tiger and Bill have the same taste in women? 

More important than anything else is the fact that white women weren't valued enough for the white men making millions off  "I-Spy," Bill Cosby Stand-up, "Fat Albert," and "The Cosby Show" to turn his dollar-sign green @$$ over the police. 

Sexism plays a huge role in white men covering for black Bill too.   

Slut-shaming was 100% successful inside and out of the Playboy Mansion heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Hef and Cosby hung out there regularly.  There existed in the cultural consciousness of the mid-20th century "the girls that do" (have sex outside of marriage) and "the girls that don't" (have sex out of marriage). That were actually multiple sayings based on "the girls that do" versus "the girls that don't."  Virginity was like a prize that a "good girl" was supposed to hold onto for her husband. As for the ~girls that did~ in 1960s and 70s? They were seen as getting what they deserve if they were out late, having the audacity to have a drink--even rape. (Watch a 1970s Jaime Lee Curtis slasher movie if you really want to see how expendable "the girls that do" were)


 

In the 1980s, men were still arguing about whether date-rape was even a real thing.  In many men's eyes, if a woman agreed to go on a date with a man and then let herself be alone with him, she was assumed to want sex -- even if he ripped her clothes and knocked her around a bit as rough foreplay while she screamed "No!"

 Slut-Shaming-On-Steroids having been allowed to pass as "normal" American culture is also one of the reasons why Cosby, and any other man with access to a microphone, could tell rape jokes with impunity not so long ago.

Back in good ole days of "Spanish Fly" a man could get away with rape, call it "let the drinker beware," then laugh it off with his buddies  later.

 

Some black folk have tried to say, "Times were different back then. It wasn't considered 'rape' back then. People just didn't know any better."  

Well guess what?

White people try to say the very same garbage about slavery.

And I say, "Immorality being popular doesn't make that immorality not exist. People who were born two decades, five decades, or twenty decades before you are not simple-minded children to be excused no matter what heinous act they commited because they didn't know any better. Anybody over the age of 5 knows when they are hurting someone else. Those that don't are called 'sociopaths' whether born in 1650, 1750, 1850, or 1950. So I'm not letting white people get away with calling their grown, slave beating ancestors 'children who didn't know any better back in the old days.' And I'm not letting people get away with calling their women-raping-men 'children who didn't know any better back in the old days' either, not even if those men are black."   

Like anybody else though, I truly hope we can separate Cliff Huxtable from Bill Cosby and enjoy the Cosbys again.  I loved the Cosbys like they were real.  I might remember the personalities of the characters better than some co-workers I've left behind at jobs that I had in my teens.  The Cosby Show managed to become a part of Americana. And I think they deserve to stay a part of our cultural history despite the despicable things that have come to light about the lead actor.

I hope, one day, we can all forget Bill Cosby and remember Cliff Huxtable. I think I'd feel that way even if The Cosby Show wasn't the First Black Family of television. Maybe not. But I think would. I suppose I'll never be sure of that.


I've felt heartbroken over having to give up the Cosbys. I haven't even tried to watch an episode since this story broke.  But I think I might have IF Cosby's face hadn't become symbolic of misogynoir in my head.

Bill Cosby, the actor, is upsetting me a lot less than the protectors of Bill Cosby at this point. Bill Cosby is what he is.  It's unlikely he's going to trial or to jail. I've come to accept that after all this time. But I have to have more hope going forward for the black community than that.  I can't just the black community is what it is, full of way too much misogynoir, and keep it moving. 

The defenders of Bill Cosby being so numerous, mean my sisters and I aren't safe, not even from other sisters, because the black male predators among us are now being held as sacred in the black community -- in ways they were not a century ago.

And think about this for a minute or ten:  Cosby is being protected for very much the same reasons that Ben Affleck protected his slave owning ancestor, isn't he? White folk don't want to disrupt the hero worship with the truth and we don't either  
Cosby is an actor.


I keep telling myself that's all Cosby is. He's just an actor. As I recall his pontificating about the inferiority of black teenagers who embarrass the entire race for having low hanging pants, I also recall that he failed 10th grade then joined the Navy, getting an equivalency degree or some such thing, later. He went on to get a solid education, but as Ben Carson has repeatedly proved, even brain surgeons can be idiots about the humanity of other human beings.

And what is a person that rapes women but someone who does not count the humanity of a woman as worth as much as his own?

Cosby had already told us that there are whole classes of black folk he doesn't count as equal to him.  And while I do understand that every respectability politician doesn't have to be a rapist, a respectability politician has already told you that this humanity over here is worth more than that humanity over there. In my mind, it's just a shorter leap from respectability politics to rapist.


I hope that Ebony covers all the rape accusations but pays special attention to how Beverly Johnson and other women of color have been stomped and/or ignored in favor of a man that has been known FOR AGES --by those calling their women "Queens,"  claiming   to be "all about strengthening the black family"-- to be cheating on his wife Camille multiple times a day, who has admitted to drugging women with a drug that can remove consent, which can be used to "rape."

Some people are worried about dragging black business in the street. To this I say, "HAH!!!!"  AND...

"I wish I would give a damn about people who don't give good gawd damn about  about protecting mothers, sisters, or daughters should that mother, sister, daughter or 'Queen'  have the misfortune to trust the wrong fatherly type of 'brotha' early in the morning, at noon, or late at night when that fatherly brotha offers them something to drink.

 I'm not going to be silent anytime, anywhere for those say "Queen" then routinely go about throwing me and mine under the bus.  I have tire tracks up and down my back and across my forehead. I'm done. 



Dear Rapists Who Don't Consider Themselves Such,


Your days are numbered.

Your raping days are numbered

Your covering for your rapist pals are numbered

The black men that actually deserve to be called  black MEN are slowly standing up to be counted, leaving some of you out in the little boy wanna-be-rapist cold.


The black men that actually deserve to be called black MEN are going to claim "Silence Is Violence" as their mantra too.  

* * * * * 
Those who would say "Well Nobody's Perfect!!!" please save that nonsense for the next time a black man is beaten bloody by a white man.


Those who would say, "What about Stephen [white guy actor] who's a pedophile?" I say, "What about him?" Bleach your skin and move into whiteness if you wanna worry about how he is or is not being dragged and how much danger you're in. I'm not thinking about the white pedophile accusations because I already know those living comfortably inside white supremacy are out to get me. 

What I'm worried about now are the black people who will drive a knife into my back, through my body, and out of my chest if I dare to step off the Queen pedestal by having a drink late at night with someone black and male and not related to me then dare to accuse that black man of rape just because that black man raped me.  (It is beyond me how anybody can ask why 2/3rds(?) of these women didn't come forward sooner. They are being cut to pieces at time when Cosby isn't on top anymore.)

On Forgiveness:  I believe anybody can be forgiven anything ...even if I can't do it all the time myself. (Pedophiles and rapists are two examples.) Sometimes I can only pray for the willingness to be forgiving.  So I can say in all seriousness that I hope Bill Cosby finds peace AFTER he comes clean about what he's done (a.k.a. repentance), but not one second before then --same as I feel about certain white folks and white-supremacy-guzzling-wanna-be-s.

* * * * *

One day, black people are going to stand up for black women just like they do for black men. From what I'm reading, we've been a lot closer to this being the case immediately after slavery than now. But I hope the editors at "Ebony" magazine have just taken one little baby step back in the right direction.

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An interview with Ebony Editor on the Controversial Cover