The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women – Forbes

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via The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women – Forbes.

Things That Don’t Affect Whether Herman Cain Sexually Harassed Two Women In the 1990s | TPM 2012

 

 

 

Things That Don’t Affect Whether Herman Cain Sexually Harassed Two Women In the 1990s | TPM 2012

Let’s take a minute to review the following items which — while quite interesting points! — don’t actually address the central question at hand.

Links of the Day

Two women accused Cain of inappropriate behavior
We know that how these accusations are viewed will depend on the “validity” of the complainants. The article know that they are middle/upper middle class women with enough clout to lawyer up and get settlements. If they are white it will be Cain’s downfall. Al that shuckin’ and jivinin’ and black bashing will not protect him from being view like Gus from Birth of a Nation. If they are women of color the Rebublithugs will surround him like a wagon circle and blame this on crazy, liberal, abortion-hungry, lesbian feminists. Meanwhile her is a video of the only time Herman Cain has made sense to me.

Conservative “Ex-Gay” Politician Admits to Sex With Minor
Another example of Rebubplitugs “do as I say not as I do” moral code. Linda Wall an independent conservative running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates admits the when she was a 21 year old gym teacher she had on ongoing sexual realtionship with one of her junior high school students. She expresses regret for her “youthful mistake,” claims that she was saved from being “in homosexuality” and blames her actions on the liberal atmosphere at her college and smoking to much weed. Her actions were a felony and still prosecutable. I hope that the victim in question has the fortitude to come forward to press charges against this predator and go after her sick gang born again supporters. YUCK!

ABWW Shoutout to: Aretha Franklin and Condoleeza Rice

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.”

ABWW Heroine of the Day: Elaine Brown

Since some are confusing the actually Black Panthers with some fools who keep popping up on FOX TV, it is a good time to look back and the career of Elaine Brown. Ms. Brown is the only woman to ascend to leadership of the Black Panthers. The Panthers were ahead of the time in many ways but equality for women was not one of them. The idea of the strong black women has partial roots the black power movement and who can forget Kwame Ture’s quote “The position of women in SNCC is prone.” I saw him speak a year before he died and he was still apologizing. Huey Newton’s views about women were abhorrent.

Elaine Brown grew up in the ghetto of North Philadelphia, with a single, working mother and an absent father. Despite desperate poverty, Brown’s mother worked to provide for Elaine’s private school education. As a young woman. After graduating from Philadelphia High School for Girls, she studied at Temple University for less than a semester. After withdrawing from Temple Brown moved to Los Angeles, California to try being a professional songwriter.

Upon arriving in California with little money and few contacts, Brown became involved with the Black Liberation Movement and she began working for the radical newspaper Harambee. Soon after, Brown became the first representative of the Black Student Alliance to the Black Congress in California. In April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior, she attended her first meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Brown joined the Black Panther Party as a rank-and-file member, studying revolutionary literature, selling Black Panther Party newspapers, and cleaning guns, among other tasks. Brown soon helped the Party set up its first Free Breakfast for Children program in Los Angeles, as well as the Party’s initial Free Busing to Prisons Program and Free Legal Aid Program. Huey Newton a Panther with extremely misogynist views stated, “A woman in the Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people…. I knew I had to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party.”

During Brown’s leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson’s victorious campaign to become Oakland’s first black mayor. Also, Brown developed the Panther’s Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.
Brown stepped down from Chairwoman of the Black Panther Party less than a year after Newton’s return from Cuba in 1977 when Newton condoned the beating of Regina Davis, the administrator of the Panther Liberation School. In her autobiography, A Taste of Power, she states this incident was the point at which Brown could no longer tolerate the sexism and patriarchy of the Black Panther Party.

Brown eventually returned to the civil rights struggle, focusing on the need for radical prison reform. From 1980 to 1983 she attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. In 1996, Brown moved to Atlanta, Georgia and founded Fields of Flowers, Inc., a non-profit organization committed to providing educational opportunities for impoverished African-American children. In 1998, Brown co-founded the grassroots group Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice to advocate for children being prosecuted as adults in the state of Georgia.

In 2003, Brown helped co-found the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, which helps thousands of prisoners find housing after they are released on parole, facilitates transportation for family visits to prisons, helps prisoners find employment, and raises money for prisoner phone calls and gifts. Brown has continued her prison reform advocacy by lecturing frequently at colleges and universities in the US. I got to hear her speak a few years ago and she was funny, informative and has risen above many of the rumors and antipathy that swirl around her tenure as a leader in the black panthers.

In March 2007, Brown announced her bid to be the 2008 Green Party presidential nominee. Brown felt that a campaign was necessary to promote the interests of those not represented by the major political parties, especially the interests of women under 30 and African-Americans. Her platform focused on the needs of working-class families, promoting living wages for all, free health care, more funding for public education, more affordable housing, removal of troops from Iraq, improving the environment, and promoting equality. Brown intended on using her campaign to bring many minorities to the Green party in hopes that it would better represent a revolutionary force for social justice. In late 2007, Brown resigned from the Green Party, as she found that the Party remained dominated by whites who had “no intention of using the ballot to actualize real social progress, and will aggressively repel attempts to do so.” Read more about Ms. Brown on her own website.

ABWW Kudos to: America’s Robin Renee Sanders and Nigeria’s Josephine Anenih

Written With contributions from Paul Obi @ allAfrica.com

Women politicians in Africa are a rare sight. It is nice to see sisters doing it for themselves.

Considering the numerical strength of Nigerian women and the forth coming 2011 general elections, the First Lady, Patience Goodluck Jonathan and the outgoing US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Renee Sanders have insisted that come next election, government in collaboration with women groups in the country must ensure that 35% benchmark for women in elective positions is met. The women made the announcement at a gathering made up of women from across the 36 states of Nigeria, who were addressed by Josephine Anenih, the Nigerian minister of Women Affairs who said, “the time has come for Nigerian women to stand up their responsibilities”

Ms. Anenih was Born in Sokoto, Nigeria in 1948, she moved frequently as her father, since her a civil servant with the Public Works Department, served postings all over the country. She completed her secondary education at Queen’s College, Lagos.Studying Law, she received a B.Ed, LLB, and B.L. from the University of Ife (1974/75) and the University of Benin.

She was the chairperson of the Federation of Women Lawyers from 1994 to 2000, and was the first National Woman Leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from 1999-2005. She was a Special Adviser on Women Affairs to President Obasanjo until 2006.She co-founded the Women Foundation Nigeria, an organization to help Nigerian women exchange views on global women’s issues and to help empower women in politics. She is a member of the Gender Electoral and Constitutional Memoranda Committee, which aims to incorporate women’s perspectives in Nigeria’s Electoral Laws.

In agreement with Ms. Anenih the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Renee Sanders called on the women to emulate African-American women who in spite of suppression, fought hard to attained freedom. According to US envoy, “since Nigerian women constitute 75 million people, your numbers should make you seek for change, you should continue to work to be dynamic, to ensure that issues of health care, education and employment are tackled, you should be the agent for change’, Sanders charged. Prior to that she served as Ambassador to the Republic of Congo (2002-2005) and as Director for Public Diplomacy for Africa for the State Department (2000-2002). She served twice as the Director for Africa at the National Security Council at the White House (under former Presidents Bush 1988- 1989, and Clinton 1997-1999.); was the Special Assistant for Latin America, Africa, and International Crime for the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the State Department (1996-1997); and served as the Chief of Staff and Senior Foreign Policy Advisor for a member of the House International Relations Committee – working on democracy, reconstruction and nation-building issues (1994-1996). Ambassador Sanders holds a Master of Art degree in International Relations and Africa Studies, and a Masters of Science degree in Communications and Journalism from Ohio University. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Hampton University. It is great to see black women from around the the Diapora work on improving conditions for us all.

ABWW Heroine of the Day: Shirley Sherrod

When I first saw the edited tape I was suckered like the NAACP, the Agriculture Department and the White House. When the story began to trickle out I watched it again and you can clearly see that the audio does not match the movement of her lips. Andrew Breitbart is an anti black conservative who planned to besmirch this woman and in order to promote his agenda that blacks are more racist than whites have ever been. There are still people in America that believe that blacks are lazy, childishly dependent on the government and so intellectually deficient that the Democratic party leads us around by the welfare dollar. People like this have used the idea that black women are immoral and lazy for decades. Reagan’s emphasis of the “black welfare mother” is still used by conservative political activists, even though whites have always been a larger proportion of the welfare roles in America than African Americans.

The War on Drugs was hyped by reports of black female hypersexual crack addicts while havoc that users of powdered cocaine produced was disregarded. Images of lazy, immoral black women pumping out a generation of crack debilitated babies on the government tit, helped push through the racist drug laws that have incarcerated three generations of black and Hispanic non-violent drug offenders. It is time that these anti-black conservatives like Andrew Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh are called out and denounced. Bill O’Riley and FOXNEWS needs to start calling themselves FOXENTERTAINMENT or learn journalistic ethics. I applaud Ms. Sherrod for her courage and steadfast efforts to help poor people no matter what their race over a 45 year period. When racial conservatives state “we need to forget about slavery”, they erase the 100 years in between slavery and the passage of civil rights legislation. Ms. Sherrod is a survivor of the long campaign of domestic terrorism that that is so often dismissed by racial conservatives. Despite the fact that her father was murdered by a white man who was never prosecuted and the KKK threatened her family, Ms Sherrod remained in the South during an era when the danger of racial terrorism was an everyday concern. She soon learned that poor vs. rich can trump black vs. white, rose above her pain and loss and devoted her life to helping those without the resources to help themselves. Watch the entire speech an see how amazing this woman’s journey really was.

ABWW Heroine of the Day: Dr. Wangari Maathai

Wangari Muta Maathai is environmental and political activist in Kenya. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.

To read more about the trials and triumphs of this amazing woman go to her organization’s web site Wiki and her , The Green Belt Movement

ABWW Haters of the Day: The University of the Free State Four

South African women have to put up with one of the highest rates of rape in the world. On top of that they have to put up with a little “fun” from British and Afrikaans college boys.

“The South African Human Rights Commission has lodged papers with the Bloemfontein Equality Court to seek redress on behalf of the four black female University of Free State workers who were grossly humiliated when four white male students recorded and disseminated an insulting video on them,” the commission said in a statement.

The commission asked the court to order that the students be declared guilty of unfair discrimination by act and omission by making the video and distributing it. The commission also asked that the students apologize to the women, to all black women and to black people in general. The apology should be “unqualified and generous”.

The commission further asked for an order that the students be made to pay jointly general and punitive damages of R1 million to each of the women.The commission asked for an order to the university to present a comprehensive plan to the court, outlining remedial measures to be put in place to support and afford redress to the women, and to prevent such an incident of occurring again.

The commission also asked for remedial measures to eradicate the culture of racial and gender intolerance at the university in general and the Reitz hostel in particular.It asked that, if any of the students were re-admitted to the university, they be sent for diversity and racial integration training.The four former students – RC Malherbe, Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe and Danie Grobler – are accused of humiliating the staff members in a mock initiation ceremony in 2007, which they filmed.

The video was leaked to the media in February 2008. It showed the women drinking from bottles of beer, racing against each other, eating from a dish, vomiting into buckets, dancing and playing rugby. It also showed one of the four students urinating into a dish that appears to contain food.

ABWW Heroine of the Day: Dorothy Height, The Godmother of Civil Rights

The Civil Rights Movement owes a big hand to the women who quietly, patiently stood by and behind the great men we honor today. This year, Dorothy Height, one of the fiercest activists for civil rights and black feminism left this world for her just rewards.
Height, who had been chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority worked in the 1960s alongside civil rights pioneers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., future U.S. Rep. John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph. She was on the platform when King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

President Obama called her a hero and the “godmother” of the movement, noting she “served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement — witnessing every march and milestone along the way.”

“And even in the final weeks of her life — a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest, Dr. Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith.”

Friend and former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said she was “deeply saddened” by Height’s death.
“She was a dynamic woman with a resilient spirit, who was a role model for women and men of all faiths, races and perspectives,” Herman said. “For her, it wasn’t about the many years of her life, but what she did with them.”

Height’s years of service span from Roosevelt to the Obama administration, the council said in a statement announcing her death and listing the highlights of her career.

Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. She was among a handful of key African-American leaders to meet with Obama at the White House recently for a summit on race and the economy.

Her name is synonymous with the National Council of Negro Women, a group she led from 1957 to 1988, when she became the group’s chair and president emerita. She was also a key figure in the YWCA beginning in the 1930s.

Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Her civil rights work began in 1933 when she became a leader of the United Christian Youth Movement of North America. Among the issues she tackled were fighting to stop lynchings and working to desegregate the armed forces.

She experienced discrimination and wrote in her memoir about being turned down for admittance to Barnard College in New York.”Although I had been accepted, they could not admit me,” she wrote in “Open Wide the Freedom Gates.”

“It took me a while to realize that their decision was a racial matter: Barnard had a quota of two Negro students per year, and two others had already taken the spots.”

At its 1980 commencement ceremonies, Barnard awarded Height its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.
Under Height’s leadership, the National Council of Negro Women dealt with the “unmet needs of women and their families by combating hunger and establishing decent housing and home ownership programs through the federal government for low-income families.”

The organization spearheaded voter registration drives and started “Wednesdays in Mississippi” in which female interracial groups helped at Freedom Schools, institutions meant to empower African-Americans and address inequalities in how the races were educated.

John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and fellow civil rights leader, said Height was fighting for social justice “long before Dr. King and some of us appeared on the scene.”

“She was truly a pioneer, and she must be remembered as one of those brave and courageous souls that never gave up, never gave in,” Lewis said. “She was a feminist and a major spokesperson for the rights of women long before there was a women’s movement.”

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Height’s efforts “undergirds the work” of the caucus.

She called Height “a bold and brilliant African-American woman who blazed many trails and opened many doors for a countless number of Americans, particularly the empowerment of women and girls, during her lifelong quest for justice.”