African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom, 1989 – 2010

January 25, 2010

The statement below was written in the summer of 1989 by Marcia Gillespie, who was then editor of Ms. Magazine. One of the signers, Loretta Ross, explains its history:

“This statement … originated with a conference call organized by Donna Brazile, then executive director of the National Political Congress of Black Women, because we were strategizing on how to respond to the Webster Supreme Court decision [the 1989 ruling that allowed individual states to restrict access to abortion]. On that conference call, we decided that what was most urgently needed was a statement giving African American women permission to talk about abortion (the original suggestion was made by Byllye Avery). We then published the statement, distributed about 1/4 million copies of it, and the rest is history.”

Choice is the essence of freedom. It’s what we African Americans have struggled for all these years. The right to choose where we would sit on a bus. The right to vote. The right for each of us to select our own paths, to dream and reach for our dreams. The right to choose how we would or would not live our lives.

This freedom–to choose and to exercise our choices–is what we’ve fought and died for. Brought here in chains, worked like mules, bred like beasts, whipped one day, sold the next–244 years we were held in bondage. Somebody said that we were less than human and not fit for freedom. Somebody said we were like children and could not be trusted to think for ourselves. Somebody owned our flesh and decided if and when and with whom and how our bodies were to be used. Somebody said that black women could be raped, held in concubinage, forced to bear children year in and year out, but often not raise them. Oh, yes, we have known how painful it is to be without choice in this land.

Those of us who remember the bad old days when Jim Crow rules and segregation were the way of things know the hardships and indignities we faced. We were free, but few or none were our choices. Somebody said where we could live and couldn’t, where we could work, what schools we could go to, where we could eat, how we could travel. Somebody prevented us from voting. Somebody said we could be paid less than other workers. Somebody burned crosses, harassed and terrorized us in order to keep us down.

Now once again, somebody is trying to say that we can’t handle the freedom of choice. Only this time they’re saying African-American women can’t think for themselves and, therefore, can’t be allowed to make serious decisions. Somebody’s saying that we should not have the freedom to take charge of our personal lives and protect our health, that we only have limited rights over our bodies. Somebody’s once again forcing women to acts of desperation, because somebody’s saying that if women have unintended pregnancies, it’s too bad, but they must pay the price.

Somebody’s saying that we must have babies whether we choose to or not. Doesn’t matter what we say, doesn’t matter how we feel. Some say that abortion under any circumstance is wrong, others say that rape and incest and danger to the life of the woman are the only exceptions. Doesn’t matter that nobody’s saying who decides if it was rape or incest, if a woman’s word is good enough, if she must go into court and prove it. Doesn’t matter that she may not be able to take care of a baby, that the problem also affects girls barely out of adolescence, that our children are having children. Doesn’t matter if you’re poor and pregnant–go on welfare or walk away.

What does matter is that we know abortions will still be done, legal or not. We know the consequences when women are forced to make choices without protection–the coat hangers and knitting needles that punctured the wombs of women forced to seek back-alley abortions on kitchen tables at the hands of butchers. The women who died screaming in agony, awash in their own blood. The women who were made sterile. All the women who endured the pain of makeshift surgery with no anesthetics and risked fatal infection.

We understand why African-American women risked their lives then and why they seek safe, legal abortion now. It’s been a matter of survival. Hunger and homelessness. Inadequate housing and income to properly provide for themselves and their children. Family instability. Rape. Incest. Abuse. Too young, too old, too sick, too tired. Emotional, physical, mental, economic, social–the reasons for not carrying a pregnancy to term are endless and varied, personal, urgent and private. And for all these pressing reasons, African-American women once again will be among the first forced to risk their lives if abortion is made illegal.

There have always been those who have stood in the way of our exercising our rights, who tried to restrict our choices. There probably always will be. But we who have been oppressed should not be swayed in our opposition to tyranny of any kind, especially attempts to take away our reproductive freedom. You may believe abortion is wrong. We respect your belief and we will do all in our power to protect that choice for you. You may decide that abortion is not an option you would choose. Reproductive freedom guarantees your right not to. All that we ask is that no one deny another human being the right to make her own choice. That no one condemn her to exercising her choices in ways that endanger her health, her life. And that no one prevent others from creating safe, affordable, legal conditions to accommodate women, whatever the choices they make. Reproductive freedom gives each of us the right to make our own choices and guarantees us a safe, legal, affordable support system. It’s the right to choose.

We are still an embattled people beset with life-and-death issues. Black America is under siege. Drugs, the scourge of our community, are wiping out one, two, three generations. We are killing ourselves and each other. Rape and other unspeakable acts of violence are becoming sickeningly commonplace. Babies linger on death’s door, at risk at birth: born addicted to crack and cocaine, born underweight and undernourished, born AIDS infected. An ever-growing number of our children are being abandoned, being mentally, physically, spiritually abused. Homelessness, hunger, unemployment run rife. Poverty grows. Our people cry out in desperation, anger, and need.

Meanwhile, those somebodies who claim they’re “pro-life” aren’t moved to help the living. They’re not out there fighting to break the stranglehold of drugs and violence in our communities, trying to save our children or moving to provide infant and maternal nutrition and health programs. Eradicating poverty isn’t on their agenda. No–somebody’s too busy picketing, vandalizing, and sometimes bombing family-planning clinics, harassing women and denying funds to poor women seeking abortions.

So when somebody denouncing abortion claims that they’re “pro-life,” remind them of an old saying that our grandmothers often used: “It’s not important what people say, it’s what they do.” And remember who we are, remember our history, our continuing struggle for freedom. Remember to tell them that we remember!

Original Signers: Byllye Avery (National Black Women’s Health Project) Rev. Willie Barrow (Operation Push) Donna Brazile (Housing Now) Shirley Chisholm (National Political Congress of Black Women) Representative Cardiss Collins (U.S. Congress) Romona Edelin (National Urban Coalition) Jacqui Gates (National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc.) Marcia Ann Gillespie (Ms. Magazine) Dorothy Height (National Council of Negro Women) Jewel Jackson McCabe (National Coalition of 100 Black Women) Julianne Malveaux (San Francisco Black Leadership Forum) Eleanor Holmes Norton (Georgetown University Law School) C. Delores Tucker (DNC Black Caucus) Patricia Tyson (Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights) Maxine Waters (Black Women’s Forum) Faye Wattleton (Planned Parenthood Federation of America)

Additional Signers in 1994: Tony M. Bond Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) Rep. Eva Clayton (D-NC) Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins (D-MI) Rev. Alma Crawford Evelyn S. Field Rev. Catherine Godbolte Rev. Dr. Claudia Highbaugh Beverly Hunter Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory Bernice Powell Jackson Terri James Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) Bisola Marignay The Rev. Dr. Joan Martin Cassandra McConnell Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Rep. Carrie P. Meek (D-FL) Mary F. Morten Cynthia Newbille Mary Jane Patterson Loretta Ross Jerald Lillian Scott Beverly W. Stripling Elizabeth Terry Mable Thomas Winnette P. Willis Kim Youngblood

Reprinted from Our Bodies, Ourselves Website: http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=20&compID=41

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On Harry Reid: WEB DU BOIS WAS RIGHT

January 11, 2010

Guest Commentary by Dr. Julianne Malveaux

        The problem of the twentieth century, wrote scholar-activist WEB DuBois in 1903, is the problem of the color line, the relation of the darker to the lighter races in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.”  WEB DuBois was right, and he was wrong.  Certainly race matters were critically important in the United States and in the world (think decolonization) in the latter part of the twentieth century, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) foolish comments about President Barack Obama suggest that we are dragging twentieth century problems into the twenty-first century.

        In 2008, Reid said that President Obama could win the Presidency because he was “light skinned” with “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one”.  The comments, somewhat demeaning and disappointing, were revealed in Game Change, the book by Mark Halperin and John Heilmann that was released last week.  Senator Reid has since apologized directly to President Obama, who has accepted the apology.  Senator Dianne Feinstein says this should be the end of it.  With heath care legislation on the line, Democrats are wishing this matter would go away, and republicans are working it for all they can.  At least three prominent Republicans, including RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who happens to be African American, are calling for Reid’s resignation.  Steele cites the Trent Lott brouhaha, when Lott said the country would have been better had Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrat segregationist, been elected President, as evidence of double standards.  But Lott actually said he wished that segregation had prevailed, and he said this in 2002!  There’s a big difference between factually, if awkwardly, describing someone as light-skinned, and wishing for segregation.

        In some ways, this comment is not a big deal.  Except beneath the description of the President as light-skinned and well spoken is a comparative disregard for those who might be darker skinned and more ebonic.  Truth be told, though, could a darker skinned African American candidate have been able to capture the hearts, minds, and votes of so many Americans?  I think not.  “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.”

        Harry Reid’s comment, and the reaction to it, puts to rest any notion that our nation is “post-racial”.  We remain racial, and we are not above using race for political gain.  Thus the Republicans, who could likely care less about this comment, but more about weakening Democrats, are looking for blood.  The party whose renegade Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was blatantly racial during her campaign, but never reigned in, is suddenly offended by Reid’s comments, which are mild by their standards.  Michael Steele, who has implored his party to reach out to people of color, to no avail, is mired in hypocrisy when he calls for Reid’s resignation.  Post-racial?  We aren’t there yet.

        There is plenty to say about race and Democrats, as well.  For all the supposed liberalism of the President’s party, many were disparaging of President Obama’s candidacy.  President Bill Clinton was furious, derisive, and turned South Carolina away from Senator Hilary Clinton with his ill-advised comments about President Obama.  According to the same authors who outed Harry Reid, he told Senator Ted Kennedy, “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.”

Vice President Joe Biden, just three years ago, made comments not too different from Reid’s, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”  How condescending!  And yet how real and how reflective of the way many whites feel about African American people.  I don’t know how often an accomplished African American is described as “articulate” as if it is possible to be inarticulate and also a television commentator, a corporate leader, or an educator.  This is subtle racism, but those African Americans who get along manage, like President Obama, not to appear too outraged at these comments.  Biden, Clinton, and Reid have gotten away with their comments because Obama is magnanimous and others are magnanimous in his stead.  We say we know their intent, and it is not ill.  Still, the words are inappropriate and they sting.

We know what is in their hearts, but we also know what came out of their mouths.  Their words suggest that WEB DuBois was painfully right.  We are still stuck on the color line in these United States.

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My Holiday Invitation from President Obama

December 24, 2009

Blanche in Blue Room at White House Holiday Reception

On December 3, I received a letter with my name handwritten from The White House.  Initially, I thought it was a Christmas card to thank me for including Tina Tchen and the White House Council on Women and Girls at my Second Annual National Black Women’s Town Hall Meeting held at Howard University in September.

You can imagine my surprise and honor when I began pulling out something that was much more formal and elegant than a holiday card.  It was a beautiful Christmas red invitation with gold lettering that read, ” The President and Mrs. Obama request the pleasure of your company at a Holiday Reception to be held at The White House on Tuesday, December 15, 2009.”

I was speechless and breathless at the same time.  I sat quietly for a moment to reflect on the significance of being invited during the most significant year in the history of the American presidency.  I had also covered him, as a broadcast journalist, in Denver and was front row at his Inaugural. 

What made this special was the fact that I was invited because of and in recognition of my efforts.    The impact of this was humbling and validating, to say the least.  When I arrived, I was able to be present and experience these magical moments as well as capture a few.  I began by writing a wish for our nation and rolling it to be put inside the “Christmas Wish Tree.”  My fellow guests and I were waited on at every corner with champayne, sweets, sushi, chocolate and more.  I met many amazing people, some I knew and admired while others I was pleased to get to know.  The President and Mrs. Obama came downstairs to cheers and were gracious hosts.  I was lucky enough to be front and center for handshakes and a few polite words.  You can see more of my photos and commentary on my personal Facebook page–(Blanche Williams).

Ironically, this Tuesday, there was a replay of Oprah’s Primetime Christmas Special at the White House.  I hadn’t seen it the Sunday before I attended the Holiday Reception.  What I didn’t realize was that Oprah and I were given the same access in the White House.  Her special highlighted and spotlighted many of the places I stood and the things I saw.  Of course, the biggest difference was that Oprah had the President, the First Lady, and Bo, all to herself. 

In the end, sharing this hope-filled Holiday, in this year, in this White House, serves as a fitting and long-overdue gift for the countless ancestors, slaves, freedom fighters, and dreamers, who lived and died believing there would one day be a meaningful season of change in our nation.

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Burn Hollywood Burn—The Remix!

December 4, 2009

Guest Commentary by Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D.

Twenty years ago, hip hop pioneers Public Enemy decried the perpetuation of decades of exploitive cinema in their now classic, Burn Hollywood Burn!   Though many things have changed over the years, current events in the world of cinematic arts prove that many others remain same.

Today, Oscar buzz abounds surrounding the performances of comedianne turned dramatic actress, Mo’Nique as well as long-time Hollywood fixture, Sandra Bullock.  Their polar opposite depictions of motherhood in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and The Blind Side, initially appear to be worlds apart.  One is the story of how severe physical, mental, and sexual abuse fails to derail the loving spirit and aspirations of one “precious” soul.  The other depicts the guts and determination of a brash, yet loveable white woman who opens up her privileged world to a destitute stranger across the color line.  Although each have earned high marks from critics and audiences alike, the two films are seemingly worlds apart but for one disturbing commonality—the all too familiar Hollywood depiction of dysfunctional Black motherhood.   

Why is it that American cinema seems completely incapable of displaying a mothering experience congruent with my own?  The multiple generations of love, support, inexhaustible work, wisdom and sacrifice that has been the norm in my life as well as in the lives of countless others is somehow more rare than wizards, werewolves, and celestial beings on the silver screen.   Even the most “inspiring” of tales, perhaps a category to which both The Blind Side and Precious aspires, can at best display a protagonist who perseveres and achieves in spite of Black mothering, rather than because of it.

Take two of my most beloved movies, each, coincidently, starring the brilliant and talented actors, Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett.  In both the 2006 hit film, Akeelah and the Bee and the 1991 John Singleton breakout movie, Boyz-N-the Hood, Black mothering is, at best, portrayed as bad mothering-“lite.”   Boyz-N-the-Hood begins when Tre’s highly educated, professional and accomplished mother abruptly gives up on raising her son by dropping him off, unannounced, at his father’s house to stay for good.    While Akeelah’s mother makes it her mission to aggressively stand in the way of the expanded development of her child’s academic capabilities by, of all things, discouraging spelling bee participation!  Her anti-academic behavior is so deeply in-grained that the dramatic climax of the film is achieved when mom is reluctantly talked out of pulling her daughter off the stage of the State Spelling Bee already in progress!  And to think—comparatively speaking, this is “good” Black mothering by typical Hollywood standards.

More common than not, Black mothers are nothing more than loud talking, gum smacking, side-hip baby carryin’ balls of dysfunction.    Or are at best, not even Black women at all, but instead, are Black men dawning fat suits and wigs.  As the song goes, “For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term—even if now she got a perm!”   

Yes, it’s true.  Our mammy, jezebel, and sapphire roots are showing, despite our aggressive desires to cover them up through the now-trendy, self-congratulatory post-racial narrative.  

How far have we really come when the continual perpetuation of the Reagan-era welfare queen mythology is now perfectly timed to appear at a theatre near you shortly before discussions surrounding the reauthorization of welfare reform are set to begin?  

How far have we really come when one of Halle Berry’s two crack-addict depictions on her way to Superstardom is now retold, this time in feel-good form, with the added bonus of being based on real events?

Compelling as they are, these films and others of their ilk are not the only images of Black mothering that should be given the green-light for production.  Nor should they be the only type of stories starring Black actors that receive serious consideration for Academy Awards.   This all-too common scenario is insulting at best, or evidence of down-right racist misogyny at worst in terms of Hollywood’s one-note fixation on the perpetuation of stereotypical notions of who and what Black women are in our most intimate of spaces—that of mothering our children.

 Of course, there are some notable exceptions to this rule.  Last year’s Secret Life of Bees was a rare gem, even depicting caring, protective Black mothering in the nurturing of a white girl in need of good female influences.   And though snubbed by the Academy, by business standards, the film was a resounding success, grossing more than three times the production costs of the film.  Clearly, there is a market for this type of work.  Too bad Hollywood too often fails to get the memo.

I must admit, even when Hollywood gets it wrong, it is still possible to leave the theatre with an appreciation for stellar acting performances, compelling drama, and recognizing some virtue in attempting to bring to light uncomfortable situations that are far too often swept under the rug.  But when virtually the only images of Black mothering that is packaged, sold, and absorbed on the world’s stage are stories that have at their center perceptions of the most brutal of social pathologies, the residual effects cannot help but be damaging. 

Given this long-standing reality, is it any wonder that today the most popular Google image of our First Lady is one that horrifically defiles her face to animalistic form?  And is it any wonder that when I ask my thirteen year-old son and his friends to recall just one image of positive Black mothering they have seen on film in their lifetimes aside from The Secret Life of Bees, the only response I get is deep reflection and dead silence?

 It is not.

Other stories are out there and they must be told.  But until they are, you’ll find me discovering more self-affirming ways to spend my entertainment dollar, chanting Burn Hollywood Burn all the way out of this box office madness.

Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D. is the Director of the National Council of Negro Women’s Research, Public Policy, and Information Center. The RPPI Center is a research/action institute which seeks to inform, catalyze and mobilize African American women for change in both the policy arena and throughout the broader cultural dynamic.

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First Lady Michelle Obama’s Thanksgiving Message

November 26, 2009

Tomorrow, many of us will gather around the table with family and friends to give thanks over a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy — and let’s not forget pumpkin pie!

But for some in this country, the feast will not be as bountiful.  In fact, it won’t be much of a feast at all.  Hunger is on the rise in America — hitting its highest levels in nearly 15 years.  A recent report released by the USDA reveals that in 2008 an estimated 1.1 million children were living in households that experienced hunger multiple times over the past year.

To combat hunger this winter, we’re launching, in coordination with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United We Serve: Feed a Neighbor initiative — a program that empowers you with all the resources you need to mobilize against the hunger crisis in your community. 

Barack and I are committed to doing all we can to end hunger by making food programs more accessible to eligible families.  But government can only do so much — it will take all of us working together to put an end to hunger in America.

That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to get involved at Serve.gov. Find local volunteer opportunities like delivering meals to homebound seniors, offering your professional skills at a food pantry, or planting a community garden and sharing produce with your neighbors.  You can also create your own volunteer opportunity using our anti-hunger toolkit.

This holiday season let’s recommit to serving our communities and working together to feed American families.  Get started giving back today.

Thank you,

Michelle

First Lady Michelle Obama

The White House

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New Mammogram Guidelines, A Death Sentence for Black Women

November 21, 2009

The politics of breast cancer leads to survival for some, but death for Black women and others.   

Guest Commentary  by Eleanor Hinton-Hoytt, President/CEO, Black Women’s Health Imperative

The Black Women’s Health Imperative (Imperative) finds the recent announcement by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updating its 2002 breast cancer screening recommendations unacceptable.

These recommendations, which are being supported by several national breast cancer advocacy organizations, do a serious disservice to Black women.

Two USPSTF assertions, in particular, could prove deadly for many Black women: 1) that breast self-exams do not save lives and are, therefore, unnecessary; and 2) that mammograms should be delayed until age 50 and, even then, performed only every other year. Three facts about breast cancer and Black women also make the task force’s recommendations inappropriate and potentially deadly. Black women: 1) tend to be diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age; 2) are more likely to be diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a more virulent form; and 3) are more likely to die of breast cancer than White women.

“I strongly disagree with the notion that preventing the psychological harms and inconvenience caused by false-positive screening results, as implied in the recommendations, outweigh the importance of saving one woman’s life. We should not be in the business of rationing care,” Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the Imperative, said. “Historically, researchers have not studied Black women. Black women have not been at the forefront of the breast cancer movement, and our unique health experiences and outcomes have not been factored into policy and advocacy decisions. These recommendations completely ignore the impact of well-known breast cancer disparities affecting us.” 

Ngina Lythcott, PhD, the Imperative’s representative on the Integration Panel of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program, a survivor and advocate, agrees: “As a 21-year breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed and treated in my early 40s, I encourage the Imperative to continue to tell women to perform monthly breast self exams and receive annual clinical exams and mammograms to monitor their breast health. These recommendations are ill informed because they are based upon a macro review of breast cancer research that could not have included the experiences of Black women.”

The Imperative is tremendously concerned about how health insurance companies will interpret the USPSTF recommendations. Will they use them to refuse to cover the cost of mammograms before age 50, and then only every other year? Will younger Black women be denied appropriate breast cancer screening, detection, diagnosis and treatment, jeopardizing their lives?

“These new recommendations do not consider the data we have about younger African American women who have a more aggressive form of breast cancer,” asserts Zora Brown, 30-year breast cancer advocate and survivor and director of health and cultural affairs for INTEGRIS Health. “I think these recommendations are baffling, confusing and wrongheaded.”  

If Black women follow the USPSTF recommendations, breast cancer may kill many of them before they ever have their first mammogram.

The Imperative strongly recommends that Black women continue to perform monthly breast self exams, request an annual clinical breast exam performed by a health provider, and a mammogram starting as early as possible and no later than age 40.

Regina Hampton, M.D., surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer surgery, agrees with the Imperative’s recommendations: “Mammograms are the best test we have. I am appalled that the task force would make these recommendations. I have many patients between the ages of 30 – 49, who have benefited from mammography and are survivors.”

Printed with permission from BHW Imperative 11/19/2009

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Democratic Leaders Strike Devil’s Bargain

November 12, 2009

Women’s Media Center Condemns Passage of Stupak Amendment

Statement by WMC President Jehmu Greene

In late-night backroom meetings, House Democratic leaders struck a devil’s bargain and passed the health care reform bill on the backs of women. While many so-called progressive organizations praised the bill as a victory, the Women’s Media Center watched with outrage as the House passed the Stupak Amendment, stripping women of access to vitally important reproductive health coverage.

Despite President Obama’s assurance that Americans will be able to keep their existing coverage, the Stupak Amendment goes far beyond the status quo preventing private insurers from offering crucial health services and curtailing the rights of private citizens on how we spend our own money.

At a time when leadership in the House should be working to overturn the Hyde Amendment – which has prohibited public funding of abortion in most instances since 1977 – they are instead extending its spirit of constriction and limitation of women’s right to choice, with particularly harsh consequences for low-income women.

It is impossible to imagine what would have happened had health care reform been devised at the expense of the Voting Rights Act or the Civil Rights Act – impossible to imagine because it never could have happened. Democrats do not fear women like they fear trial lawyers and union members. But Democrats should fear us because they depend on our votes to win. Women are the real majority and we put them in office, time and again.

Women did not vote for this kind of change and we will not stand for it. We will not sit back and accept on faith the President and congressional leaders’ promise to work behind the scenes on our behalf. The Women’s Media Center will continue to amplify the voices of women who demand the passage of health care reform with no new anti-choice restrictions.

Printed with permission from Women’s Media Center – 11/12/2009

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Health Care Victory, Not Without Casualties for Women

November 8, 2009

As I watched the proceedings that led to the  passing of the Health Care Bill in the House of Representatives, I couldn’t help but think about the World Wide Sports famous line, “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”  There were political winners and losers but my concern turned to the consumer, the citizen, the average and above-average American.  What does it mean for us?

The “thrill of victory” reflects the first step forward, in a long battle, for decency and humanity in the lives of “we the people.”  The next hurdle is passing the Senate.  So did your Representatives speak in your voice Saturday night?  We’ve learned that oftentimes “doing the right thing” in the name of the people is a struggle.  But nothing worth anything is easy, right?  Well, that’s what those, who aren’t willing to give up power, usually teach and tell us.

Now ladies, can we talk?  Don’t start cheering yet because in the same breath, we’ve been saddled with a stupid amendment aka Stupak Amendment that denies you funding for your Supreme Court reproductive right to an abortion.  Can you separate your religious beliefs from your reproductive rights?  If belief trumps rights then religion serves to take away your choices in the name of God.  Adding insult to injury, if you exercise that constitutional right, you are financially on your own.   But here’s the kicker; we are told this is what  the majority of women support.

Overall, yes, we have moved forward but at what cost?  To put this health care bill into perspective, we must keep in mind that for millions of Americans currently surviving without healthcare, this is still a promise for coverage in the coming years; four to be exact.  Just make sure you don’t get sick before 2015.

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Niara Sudarkasa- A Woman of High Purpose

October 26, 2009

Guest Commentary by Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Dr. Niara Sudarkasa, the first woman President of Lincoln University, has a name that reflects her reality. Niara means woman of high purpose, and that she is, indeed. After leaving Lincoln University in 1998, she traveled and consulted, and has recently been scholar-in-residence at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Last week, she donated her papers and personal library, including more than 3800 books, 4100 issues of journals and periodicals, plaques and other collectibles, including the outfit she wore when she was enstooled as a chief in the Ife Kingdom of Nigeria. This is a sister and scholar whose name ought to be spoken frequently among African American people, especially those who have concerns about the African American family, and those who have interests in things African. We are more likely to know entertainers, however, than we are to know scholars. This is a scholar certainly worth knowing.

I had the honor of traveling to Fort Lauderdale to help salute Dr. Sudarkasa on the occasion of her very generous gift (valued at more than $270,000) to the library. In thinking about Niara’s life and career, I was especially focused on the work she has done as an Africanist and anthropologist, long before it was fashionable for African American people to look at our African roots. Indeed, Niara learned Yoruba as part of her doctoral work and studies the work that women did in African society for her dissertation. Her early work lays the foundation for contemporary work on linkages between Africa and the United States.

One of the things Dr. Sudarkasa developed is the concept of the seven R’s as foundations for family life. The R’s represent African family values that supported kinship structures. From a contemporary perspective, when we see the R’s absent, we can also explain some of the challenges that we face in family life. The R’s – respect, responsibility, restraint, reciprocity, reverence, reason and reconciliation – represent the highest and best in family life and indeed in civic life. Unfortunately, many are all too absent in relations and discourse today.

Niara Sudarkasa has had the blessing and the burden to be many “firsts” – the first black woman to teach at Columbia University, where she earned her doctorate; the first black woman to teach at New York University; the first African American woman to teach anthropology at the University of Michigan; the first woman to lead Lincoln University. Being a first isn’t easy – you are carrying the burden for the race, for the gender, being judged as a representative of everyone, not simply as a human being. In those first positions, stumbling is not an option. Niara has soared, and there are so many sister Presidents and sister scholars who stand on her shoulders.

Why write a column about this phenomenal woman? Because history has a way of swallowing women’s lives, and especially black women’s lives, unless we insistently step up, speak up, and tell our stories. Because Niara’s story is inspirational to young women and to not-so-young women. Because we ignore the real foundations of African American Studies if we ignore this woman’s wonderful work.

The Shriver Report was released a couple of weeks ago, a collaboration between California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, and the DC-Based Center for American Progress. It alleges that “it’s a woman’s world” because women are now the majority of American workers. Indeed, women have been the majority of our nation’s college students for about a decade. But women still earn, on average, less than men do, and women’s wages have been dropping faster than men’s in this recession. I thought of Dr. Sudarkasa as I skimmed the report, thinking of the pioneer that she is, and the ways the work world has changed (but also not changed) for women. Niara Sudarkasa is among those who paved the way for women like Maria Shriver, and so many others to contemplate the contemporary status of women.

My hat is off to this woman of high purpose, an educator, author, scholar and leader whose work has made this world a better place!

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and commentator, and the Founder & Thought Leader of Last Word Productions, Inc., a multimedia production company.

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Posted by bwilliams12

The Defender’s Online -Poll #15

October 18, 2009

Tensions are building around an image depicting President Barack Obama as the Joker from Batman, many times with the world “socialist” under his face. A banner with the image is displayed outside of a club in Richmond, Virginia, which led to a protest by the NAACP, which says that the image attacks not only the President, but all people of African descent. Others feel the image is a reflection of some people’s frustration with the administration’s policies.   IS IT RACIST?

 

Here’s my response:

Is this racist?  Yes, but its not that simple…what’s amazing is that most white people are in denial that this could be a racist depiction of the President of the United States, who happens to be a man of color, a perceived minority in this majority white America, who has risen to the highest position of power in our nation. 

Many white people and some black don’t recognize, therefore cannot empathize about, the history of racism, Jim Crow, segregation or domestic terrorism that continues to exist and undermine humanity in this U.S. of A. 

Many don’t realize how mass media programming, child-rearing, societal norms, and modeling over the years have created an underlying subconscious and systematic way of looking at society through a flawed perspective that is often racist, hateful, and bigoted…but in the end, in this democratic country, it’s called “freedom of speech.”

But what’s most telling to me is the lack of morality, civility, and love for one another,  that has long been part of our experience in this country founded and supposedly grounded in God.   The more we know our history and apply its lessons, the less surprised we will be.

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Posted by bwilliams12

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