An open letter of apology to Black Men in hopes of Reconciliation. : ThyBlackMan.com.
Do you know what is wrong with the black community? Black women. Although black women did not institute the crack:cocaine drug policy, did not create deindustrialization,we did not create predatory lending & ghetto loans, did not create the backlash against affirmative action, did not create Federal Housing Adminstration policy of redlining and devaluing black property, we did not create the banking crisis of that 1980′s that ended the black banking system, yet we are the cause of the breakdown of the black family and community according to Nojma Muhammad.
According to Ms. Muhammad we need to get down on our knees and beg forgiveness for our independent ways, for not putting the needs and desires of black men first and most importantly thinking that our reproductive organs are our own property. If Ms. Muhammad wants to live her life this way then more power to her, but if she thinks that wholesale prostration to black men will do a damn thing but give a sister rug burn, she is sadly mistaken. She fails to take into account that black women have some the highest rates of rape & sexual abuse in this country, we earn less and we are incarcerated more than other women in this country. Will apologizing to the baby daddy who has three other baby mamma instantly make him into a exemplary parent and provider? Will saying “I’m sorry, brother” stop the misogynist trend in black male popular culture? Will going up to random men on the street and offering them you womb stop the almost three times rate of out-marriage? Will prostrating in perpetuity stop the rates of domestic violence in our community? I would venture to guess HELLS NO! The churches & mosques are filled with single black women willing to submit to black men.
Black men need to work on themselves & find a semblance of manhood that does not involve degrading and defaming black women and using that as excuse to continue bad behavior. Here is my challenge to black men start fighting the systemic racism that plagues our community, fight to get education, employment, fairness in criminal justice and political system and stop blaming your status in this country on us! Maybe then we can discuss this so called “reconciliation.”
Jimi Izreal is a pompous asshat, who has bashes black women for fun and profit. This is second time being named Hater of the Day, congratulations! He has a neurotic need to publish his whining because we don’t fall on our knees to worship this snotweasel like he was an Adonis. He had a flame war with me after I read an excerpt from his book and criticized his neurotic ramblings. Now the dude is bashing black mothers, black girls and feminists in a piece for jezabel.com. The video of a 14 year old African American performing oral sex on a boy of similar age went viral after he and his friends uploaded it to the internet.The accompanying defamation of the girl exploded and the condemnation for the boy in question and the boys who taped this was conspicuously silent.
There are a plethora of black women in the blogoshere but jezebel.com chooses a black man to discuss the distribution of this child pornography. The is not a review of latest season’s fashions, this is a crime. Publishing a victim blaming, woman bashing piece like this just supports the longstanding devaluation of black women and lack of acknowledgment of white female privilege. You can read this idiot’s ramblings and a great critique called of his fluffer nuttery
No, You Aren’t Amber Cole’s Father.
Madame Noire, known for their feminist bashing pieces supported Izreal’s tomfoolery so I politely (well maybe not so politely) had to remind them that black feminist movement is hundreds of years old. I am tired of black people who look at the feminism as some kind of invention of white women. African AMerican women have been campaigning for the protection and equality since slavery. Bloggers who see black feminist as brainwashed followers of white women need to read Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman speech. The obviously have not heard about Maria Miller W. Stewart, Sarah Mapps Douglass and Sarah Parker Remond who all spoke eloquently about special horror of being a slave and a woman. Frederick Douglass was also an member of the feminist movement and Ida B Wells spoke as fervently about the sexual atrocities that black women face as she did about lynching.The boys in this case have been arrested and hope the young lady in question get some counseling, so she can make more prudent decisions in the future.
By Mary Ann Roser/AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 31, 2010
How a woman experiences menopause in the U.S. might have a lot to do with her race or ethnicity, according to a recently published University of Texas study. White, African American, Hispanic and Asian women all report different experiences with their physical symptoms as well as their attitudes toward menopause — and culture is a big reason why, said lead researcher Eun-Ok Im, a UT professor of nursing.
But other factors, including biology, education, overall health and socioeconomic status, could be influential, according to the study published in July in the Western Journal of Nursing Research, as well as other research. “More in-depth cultural studies are needed to understand the reasons for the ethnic difference in menopausal symptom experience,” the paper says.
Im’s work is based on an Internet survey of 512 women in those four ethnic/racial groups between the ages of 40 and 60. It is part of a larger five-year study funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Im said. In general, her team found that certain menopause symptoms bother some groups greatly; others, not so much. For example, hot flashes were cited as a symptom by 67.8 percent of African American women, 64.4 percent of white women and 52.5 percent of Hispanic women. Only 26.1 percent of Asian women reported having hot flashes.
Researchers don’t know why Asian women have fewer hot flashes, said Im, who is of Korean heritage. But ingesting soy products for years before menopause and generally having less body fat could be factors, said Dr. Margery Gass, a gynecologist and executive director of the North American Menopause Society, a nonprofit that educates the public and professionals about menopause.
Asians’ body mass index “is way below everyone else’s,” said Gass, who said Im’s paper was well-done and a welcome addition to the research on ethnic differences in menopause. Weight gain was cited as a menopause symptom by 54.6 percent of black women and 50.8 percent of Hispanic women in the study. It was mentioned by 45 percent of white women and 33.3 percent of Asian women in the paper. Declining interest in sex was cited more often by Hispanic and Asian women.
Overall, white women in the study were more likely to complain of menopause symptoms. Of the 41 listed symptoms, they cited 31 the most frequently, including neck and skull aches, racing heartbeat, ankle swelling, exhaustion or fatigue, difficulty sleeping, urination at night, feeling clumsy, depression, anxiousness, difficulty concentrating and grouchiness.There also were commonalities. Women, regardless of ethnicity, reported feeling hot or cold most often, with forgetfulness being the second most common symptom, the paper said.
Im published a paper in Nursing Research this year involving the same 512 women and their attitudes about menopause. Minority women, in particular, said their culture had discouraged them from complaining.
“As African American women, we are always expected to be strong women who aren’t supposed to whine about anything,” one black woman was quoted as saying. “You just take life as it comes and do what you have to do. If you are having troubles or problems, you should just pray about it and keep going. I don’t think that my culture believes that menopausal symptoms are something that you would have to run to the doctor.”
That paper said that the women in all four groups tried to see menopause as a natural part of life and face it with optimism and humor. Im said she was surprised to see that attitude showing up in most of the white women, who had in the past tended to see menopause as a dreaded loss of youth.Some gynecologists say they see that shift in their own practices.”The mindset has changed,” said Dr. Sherry Neyman, an Austin obstetrician/gynecologist for 14 years. More white women “would like to go through a more natural menopause and not seek drugs as a first line of therapy.” She sees that in patients of other ethnic groups, too.
The study says that only those with the most serious symptoms took medication and that most of the women managed menopause in other ways: “Interestingly, many NH (non-Hispanic) Asians adopted mind control strategies such as ‘trying to be optimistic’ and ‘trying to calm down’ to manage symptoms. “Im notes that because the study was based on Internet questionnaires, women with comparatively lower levels of income and education were underrepresented.
That makes it hard to generalize the results to the population, said Gass, the menopause society chief. But, she said, “this type of research certainly gives a very good idea of what is happening and alerts clinicians to the fact that various contextual items play a role” in how women experience menopause.
Now this is an unusual combination! I wish I was in Philly to see this. Condi surrounded by black folks that are not her relatives? This probably has not happened since she left Birmingham. Miracles do happen.
Reposted from theGrio
MATT MOORE, Associated Press
NANCY C. ALBRITTON, Associated Press
07/27/2010
Condoleezza Rice is no stranger to the whims of royalty. So when the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin, decided the two should get together to play a song or two for charity, it was decreed. The former U.S. secretary of state and Franklin take the stage Tuesday evening at Philadelphia’s Mann Music Center in a rare duet for Rice, the classically trained pianist, and Franklin, the divalicious voice of a generation. Their aim is to raise money for urban children and awareness for music and the arts. “It is a joint effort for the inner-city youth of Philadelphia and Detroit,” Franklin told The Associated Press the night before their concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their appearance will brim not only with Franklin’s catalog of hits, but arias from the world of opera and classical music.
“We decided to give it a try,” Franklin said. “So here we are, in the city of Brotherly — and Sisterly — Love.”
Rice, better known as a diplomat and national security adviser, will accompany Franklin singing her hits “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “I Say a Little Prayer.” Rice said she’s been practicing furiously for her performance of Mozart’s piano concerto in D Minor with the orchestra. Franklin’s repertoire will include songs from her new album “A Woman Falling Out of Love,” to be released later this year. Rice’s given name is derived from the Italian opera stage instruction con dolcezza, meaning “with sweetness.” Long a musician of note, she played from elementary school through college and beyond, in quartets and performing chamber music.
She has even played with cellist Yo-Yo Ma but “this will be the first time I’ve played with an orchestra since I was 18,” she said. When she learned that Rice played classical music, Franklin sent for one of her recordings “to hear what she sounded like.”Previously, she said, “All I had seen of Dr. Rice was in a political atmosphere. It just seemed foreign that she would be a classical pianist.”Franklin was surprised.”She really does play,” Franklin said. “She’s formidable.”The two met at a White House function, Rice recalled. “We were just talking and chatting and she said ‘You play, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And she said we should do something together.” Rice told the AP their plan to play together was borne of their mutual appreciation for music and determination to keep it near and accessible to children.
Franklin, relaxing in her hotel suite and holding a single long-stemmed peach-hued rose, deplored school budget cuts of music and arts programs as “a travesty” that cannot be allowed. “Imagine what all of this would be without music. If you have to cut, cut something else. Not the music. We need the music. It soothes the savage beast. We need the music.” Rice, in a separate interview, agreed. “Nothing makes me more unhappy than when I hear people talk about music education in the schools as extracurricular,” Rice said. Both women lauded each other’s talents, and abilities, but Rice made it clear she’ll leave the singing to Franklin.”You do not want to hear me sing!” Rice said. “I’m a good choir musician, but I think I will stick to playing the piano.”
David Ormsby,
San Francisco Examiner
July 25, 2010.
The XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna this week announced that a new vaginal gel has been shown to significantly reduce a woman’s risk of being infected with HIV. The microbicide gel contains an antiretroviral drug commonly used to treat people living with HIV, and was found in a clinical trial study to be 39% effective in reducing a woman’s risk of becoming infected with HIV during vaginal intercourse.
Black and Hispanic women have the highest rates of HIV infection in the country. In 2006, Chicago women accounted for 20% of diagnosed HIV infections, a percentage that has remained unchanged over the last six years. The gender gap, however, varies considerably by race and ethnicity. Women represent 29% of all HIV infections among Blacks, 17% among Hispanics, and 5% among Whites. The leading mode of transmission for women is heterosexual contact. Among female HIV infections diagnosed in 2006, 79% were transmitted through heterosexual contact, and 20% through injection drug use.
At the Chicago-based Children’s Place Association, which provides an early-learning program for HIV/AIDS-infected or affected children, the organization’s president, Cathy Krieger, is welcoming the news out of Vienna.
“If other studies confirm the vaginal gel outcomes, this could prevent thousands of new HIV infections in Chicago over the next two decades, saving the lives of not only adult women, but also improving the lives of their children.”
Krieger noted, “Approximately 65% of the mothers of the 83 children in our pre-school program have HIV/AIDS. We know that disease endangers not only the fragile health of the moms, but also puts at risk the academic and social development of their children.” And one Chicago lawmaker is promising legislative action if the gel proves effective.
“The breakthrough on HIV/AIDS prevention for women announced at the Vienna conference is deeply welcome news,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), Chair of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee, the legislature’s leading HIV/AIDS expert.
“If further clinic trials were to confirm that the microbicide gel reduces HIV/AIDS transmission, I would sponsor legislation to ensure low-income Illinois women have access to the gel to save lives and save tax payers expensive HIV/AIDS treatment costs.”
November 22, 2009
The Invisible Woman of Color
By Tom Jacobs
www.miller-mccune.com
New research finds black women are more likely to go unnoticed and unappreciated than black men or whites of either gender. The study suggests that on an unconscious level, black women are treated as “interchangeable and indistinguishable” from one another. ( Editorial Note: So either black women are overly recognized as stereotypes or we invisible. Ain’t that about a B*tch!)
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a classic novel about a black man who feels unseen by his white neighbors. But new research suggests the most invisible Americans of all may be African-American women.
A just-published study suggests black women experience “a qualitatively different form of racism” that contributes to them not being “recognized or correctly credited for their contributions.” On an unconscious level, African-American females are “treated as interchangeable and indistinguishable from one another,” according to University of Kansas psychologists Amanda Sesko and Monica Biernat.
In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Sesko and Biernat describe two experiments — one testing facial recognition, another examining spoken statements. In the first, 131 white undergraduates looked at 32 headshots. After completing a short filler task, they were shown those same 32 photos along with 24 new head shots — six each of white men, white women, black men and black women. They were asked to indicate whether each photo was new, or a repeat from the first group.
The results: “White participants were least likely to correctly recognize black women in comparison to the other groups. They were relatively unable to distinguish a black woman they had seen before from a ‘new’ black woman.”
In the second study, participants listened to a recorded conversation among eight college students, and were shown photos of the discussion participants as they spoke. Afterwards, they were asked to match specific statements with photos of the people who spoke them.
“Black and white women were more likely to be confused with each other than black and white men,” the researchers report. “Participants were more likely to incorrectly attribute statements made by black women to other targets than they were to misattribute white women’s, black men’s or white men’s statements.”
“These effects cannot be attributed to particular features of the targets, as careful pre-testing was conducted to ensure equal age, attractiveness, facial expression and distinctiveness (among the head shots),” the researchers conclude. “Instead, these studies provide evidence of black women’s relative invisibility, at least among college-age white samples on a predominantly white campus.”
The idea that black women are aggressively sexually wanton has been circulated in America since slavery. The truth is that many black women do not have the skill to negotiate their sexual behavior or fear loosing their partner if they do not give in to risky sexual behavior. In South Florida a group of committed black women are working to change these behaviors.
”When wishing won’t, work will”
Originally posted 7/14/201 by Yolanda Reed The Westside Gazette
On June 15, 2010, Broward House’s SISTA Program, (Sisters Informing Sisters about Topics on AIDS), held their annual Booster Bash inside the Delevoe Park Conference Room. Over 70 women, men and children participated in this beautiful celebration. Led by Patricia Fleurinord and Mychell Stoakley under the direction of James Hill, the bash exemplified the unity and good times that are had during the SISTA sessions. From the prayer and welcome, given by Belinda Knox and Christine Williams, to the Spoken Word by Butterfly Vaughn, to the closing remarks by James Hill, a good time was had by all.
Speakers at the event included Commissioner Carlton Moore, Seth Leverence of Commcare Pharmacy and Dr. Kimberly Holding of BCHD. Com-missioner Moore expounded the virtues of hard work. He attributed his success to his mother and her teachings on the five W’s: ”When wishing won’t, work will.” Commissioner Moore advised the women to apply the five W’s in their lives and success would surely follow.
Congratulating the women on their desire to educate them-selves about HIV and being proactive in the management of their health and lives was the message of the hour. Dr. Kimberly Holding, an infectious disease specialist with the Bro-ward County Health Department, Paul Hughes Center, encouraged those in attendance the way only Dr. Holding can. She spoke of growing up in New Jersey with a working class family and the struggles she endured. She inspired the audience with her acronym of SISTA and celebrated the women with her reading of Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou.
Seth Leverence and Commcare Pharmacy donated the refreshments for bash. Commcare Pharmacy is a Specialty Pharmacy that expands the accessibility of special medications used in the treatment of chronic and acute illness.
What is SISTA?
SISTA is a social-skills training intervention for African American women that gives women the social and behavioral skills they need to adopt HIV risk-reduction strategies. It is aimed at reducing HIV sexual risk behavior by hetero-sexually-active African American women at highest risk for HIV. It is composed of five sessions, two hours each, delivered by Pat Fleurinord and Mychell Stoakley in various community settings, such as MODCO, Susan B. Anthony’s and Broward County jails. Each session is gender and culturally relevant and includes behavioral skills practice, group discussions, lectures, role-playing, a prevention video, and take-home exercises.
The five core elements of the SISTA program include: Convening five group sessions facilitated by a peer health educator; Educating participants about condoms through hands-on exercises; Emphasizing gender and ethnic pride as a means to reduce HIV risk behaviors; Educating participants about HIV and other STDs; and Teaching sexual assertiveness and communication.
For more information on Broward House’s SISTA program and/or to sign up, contact Patricia Fleurinord at (954) 806-5335 or Mychell Stoakley at (954) 568-7373 ext. 2247 or ext. 2229.
Contrary to what many non-blacks think black people do not spend a lot of time talking about our history in this country. My opinion is that it is simply too painful and many do not know enough about our history to know that along with the terrorism, the are stories of resilience and triumph. This sadly is not one of them. Paramour rights is a term coined by the great writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Huston. During her studies of turpentine camps in the 1930′s she found that white men would pick black women out for sexually coercive relationships whether they were married or not. This practice which many like to think ended with slavery was alive and well in the 1950′s when of Ruby McCollum, a middle class, married black woman who murdered her white lover and father of two children, Dr. C. Leroy Adams, in Live Oak, Florida, in 1952. When McCollum testified during her 1954 trial she stated that her doctor had forced her to bear his child, and then threatened to kill her if she refused to bear him a second child. The all-white jury convicted her of murder and McCollum was sentenced to die in the electric chair while still pregnant with Adams’ child. She appealed, and three months ago the State Supreme Court ordered a new trial on the ground that the jury had inspected the murder scene without the judge and Ruby McCollum being present. But Ruby was pronounced insane and, instead of being retried, was sent to Florida State Mental Hospital at Chattahoochee and was not released until 1980. McCollum was unable to recall most of the events the led up to her institutionalization since her “illness” was treated with Electroconvulsive therapy and anti-psychotic medication.
The era between the Civil War and the modern civil rights is marked with the untold abuse of black women, that I contend contributes to the intensification of black woman hateration over he last 40 years. In this period black women fought to live up to the standards of mainstream white femininity, but how could they do that when white men could debase them at anytime without any fear of legal consequences? Most black women did not have the luxury to be full time homemakers like the standards of femininity required, they were in the homes of white men that still saw his access to a black woman’s body was a God given right? Black men were not economically capable of giving their women the protection of a stay at home wife and risked his life and his family if her attempted to defend his woman’s honor. This phenomenon was on the wane but still in practice during the civil rights movement yet we never discuss it and the impact that decades this abuse may had on black families? Did the pain, anger, frustration of black men who were unable to protect their wives contribute to the contempt many black men have for us today
There are several books and a play about this case available at Amazon Check it out if you want to know more about this vital yet forgotten piece of American history.
Chad Ochocinco has three lovely black daughters but their type beauty is not what he is looking for in his VH1 reality show The Ultimate Catch. The first episode began with 85 contestants of all racial backgrounds and was whittled down to 16 by the end of the hour. Only three of these he picked were black women. One sister who made the selection is already exhibiting some of the “crazy black women’ behaviors that smear the image of all black women. If this show follows the pattern of black male dating shows that ran before it, non-black contestants not the icon of femininity or sanity that any of these men want on their arm in real life, so why so few black women cast if this is simply show business?
When called to task by New York gossip diva and talk show host Wendy Williams Ochocinco professed his desire for white and Hispanic women and actually expected applause for his post-racial preference from an audience that was populated with sisters. Since his children are older that his NFL career, why has his “preferences” gone through such a dramatic change? I wonder what the stimulus revised his idea of what constitutes a desirable woman? Ochocinco is different that the other type of black-woman-hater that has consistently rejected black women as dating and marriage prospects, I cannot read his mind, it is seems that his change of mind happened after the fame, money and glitz of his professional football career reached its peak. Is a non-black woman the ultimate accessory for a black man who has everything? What message does that send to his sable brown daughters? Are black women simply for breeding?
Ochocinco’s behavior can be traced back to the civil rights movement during the mid 1960′s. The biracial cooperation of the Freedom Rides and other projects resulted in interracial commingling that was seen a a patriarchal perk for black men, while “strong black women” were to wait out these dalliances until the black man was ready to help raise a generation of black children free from the plague of segregation. The pain of paramour rights ( the practice of southern white men forcing black women into sexually coercive relationships) may have been on the wane in the 1960′s but the shadow of that exploitation was a factor in black women’s acceptance of their brother’s new preference. Since the sixties the deindustrialization of cities, the backlash against desegregation, the War on Drugs have all contributed to the dissolution of black families and male embrace of the nihilistic thug life. These factors taken together still do not account for the rejection and dehumanization of black women that Ochocinco and supporters embrace so enthusiastically. The idea that this is an individual choice in a new enlightened race friendly America would be easier to swallow if the date on out marriage between the sexes was not so skewed. Ochocinco may tout his individual post-racial right to date whomever he chooses, but to expect that black women will support him while his actions state that we are good for breeding and not marrying is outrageously disrespectful.
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