I read an article yesterday focusing on the Black woman in America and the stereotypical views placed on her by White America, i.e. that the black woman is angry, and that in the age of Michele Obama we should dispel this myth and work to promote the positive qualities that Mrs. Obama represents. The article was interesting, but a bit of a snore. The comments after the article were much more entertaining. take a look: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/opinion-what-you-really-need-to-know-about-black-women/?hpt=us_bn1I grew up in the Caribbean island of Grenada, where Blacks are the majority. When I walked into a classroom everyone looks like me, my teachers are from my neighborhood and the principal...well it was a girls convent, so she was a nun...went to the local church. Our prime minister was darker than most people, and the our government spoke like us, and went to our high schools as children. In a nutshell, we knew where we came from, and knew where we were going because we saw it everyday. The idea of being oppressed because of race was a non issue. However, the battle of the socio-economic standing is quite apparent. (If anything, I was teased for being TOO LIGHT! can you believe that? As a black girl, my friends made fun of me for being too light. its laughable right?There's nothing I can do to control that except stand in the sun a bit longer.) But my point here is, once I moved to New York at the of 16, I was a bit taken aback at the issues my college peers were facing, and how they felt towards their white counterparts. Some were openly harsh and mocking them because of their white skin, and had such hate and contempt in their eyes that it really shocked me.
The era of the civil rights movement had passed, but it seems still fresh in the minds of young Brooklynites. With grandparents that marched on Washington, retelling stories of being slighted by white shopkeepers and racial profiling by the police, its diffcicult to move on. The pain of the 1950s was still very present in 1998....and in 2012.
I admit that I have never directly been a victim of racism, no has ever told me I don't belong, no one has ever told that I look dirty, a police man has never stopped me and asked for my ID just because he felt like it. I have no first hand knowledge of what it means to be black struggling in America. I see it, I empathise, I know the history of my African ancestors, I agree that there are still people out there wearing white sheets lurking in the woods waiting for the right time to strike, but when I look at the whites in NY I don't see them as "white devils". I just see people.
After reading ALL those comments in the article, I was amazed. It was overflowing with bigots. There's nothing wrong with placing a light on the struggles of women, black or white. That is how changes are made, that is how we reach others in the same situation, and that is how we learn to accept that we can begin to make the necessary changes.
Its admirable, that we should seek to change how we are views in American, not as an loud mouth, ex-stripper housewife in Atlanta living off her OLD RICH husband, but as an intelligent, respectable woman out to secure a future for her and her family.
If you are uncomfortable about reading, listening, talking about the oppressed, the stereotyped and the disadvantaged then remove yourself from such a threatening situation, and quit trying to shame or break others into submission and stir up non sense. If you don't want to read about black women...don't pick an article with black women in the title...idiots!
Just being a woman alone is difficult on a daily basis, we are second class citizens that was thought of as weak, hysterical, dim and of poor value, add black into the mix and oh well...you might as well forget about it....we're non-existent.
To all women folk....talk about your struggles, share it...and lets take control!!! Only we alone know how we do everyday!
