The destruction of the black female Image part 1

The destruction of the Black female image

 

   If I think on current events it is easy to see that the plight of  the black male in America still exists. Events such as the tragic shooting deaths of both Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin brought to the forefront the disparate consequences that the much feared black male faces when compared to his in comparison to others. If anyone feels the need to point out the fact that Michael Brown committed petty theft prior to being shot by a uniformed officer I’d like them to think about a certain Nevada rancher by the name of Clive Bundy who refused to pay his taxes as every other American is required to do.

One of Clive Bundy's thugs aiming at the police

     Mr. Bundy so adamantly refused to pay the penalty for trespassing on and allowing his livestock to graze on government owned land that he and a rag tag band of thugs participated in an armed standoff with police. So for Trayvon Martin the punishment for defending himself against a stranger who saw fit to stop and harass him was death. Clive Bundy and his gang of armed hooligans brandish their weapons at and threaten police and not a single shot was fired. Mr. Bundy’s antics were even celebrated by Fox news (No surprise there) until he shared his feelings about blacks being better off as slaves.  The difference, Clive Bundy and every member of his gang was white.

   But I’m not here to discuss the plight of the black man though I’m glad it’s at least being discussed regardless of the fact that no viable solution has been raised. I’d actually like to speak on something that in my opinion is far too often pushed to wayside and that is the double Whammy of being both black and a woman.

    Go back in time with me if you will to the very same Florida that on the principles of their stand your ground laws exonerated the thug George Zimmerman of Trayvon Martin’s murder. However the stand your ground law did not apply to Marissa Alexander, a black women who was sentenced to 20 years after firing a warning shot at her estranged husband in self-defense three days after she gave birth. Now while Trayvon’s tragic death swept the nation and garnered the support of black people both male and female. On the other hand Ms. Alexander, a woman who fired a warning shot against the husband that beat her so badly she had to go to the hospital a year earlier and even had a restraining order against got only tepid support from mostly other black women.

  

 I wondered why as I sat at my desk at work reading an article about Mr. Alexander that happened to include her picture. (She’s an attractive cinnamon brown women) And as if in answer to my question a male co-worker who is also black  and dressed as Trayvon Martin on Halloween in protest came up behind me and upon seeing her picture from afar gave an appreciative ‘Oh who is that,” then upon closer inspection stated “Oh she’s dark skinned never mind.” I told him of her plight which he was in fact familiar with but maintained that because her skin was not light enough it was none of his concern. I know he meant it as a joke but I didn’t find a damn thing funny about Ms. Alexander sitting in prison away from the newborn baby she barely got to hold for the fourth year because of the color of her skin. And apparently that same skin is what stems the tide of outrage amongst the males of her very own race.

   It also reminds me of a controversial study completed by so called social scientist Satoshi Kanazawa deeming black women the least attractive of all females. Now this ridiculous case study was not published on some little known racist blog like Storm Front but presented as a serious piece in Psychology Today. When I first heard of this ridiculous article claiming to be able to measure something as obscure as beauty I was shocked and insulted. The real shock however was the nonexistent response of the black male community. I expected our brothers to share our outrage at the very least. Of course it’s easy to dismiss the silence on this as a deliberate oversight of a petty issue compared to what currently plagues the black community but it’s much deeper than that.

  While it is the entire black race that is attacked, our men deemed lazy, shiftless, hooligans and our women loud mouth welfare queens the discussion of these unfair and detrimental biases is largely one-sided.  Furthermore a lot of the attacks on black women come from within, largely in the guise of entertainment. Lots of popular comedians portray us as unfeminine loud mouth harpies unworthy of the same protection and too many rapper’s belligerent ramblings indicate that you’re not pretty unless you have light skinned. (In saying this please understand I do not blame all black men for the actions of a few misguided souls)

   I am light skinned by the way and I don’t G for that light skinned versus dark skinned mess. I’m cute because I’m cute not because I have light skin.  In fact I used to be very self-conscious about being so fair skinned. If you’re dark and upset because they called you dark butt, skillet, and darkie guess what I’m light skinned and they called me snowflake, piss yellow and white girl. (Not that being white is an insult but no one wants to called something they are not)

    My point is were all in this together and I resent the implication that my best feature is the one that most prominently displays my white ancestry. I’m a proud black women with two black parents and I’m just as proud of the ample lips and hips bestowed by my black ancestors as I am of the smattering of Irish in my blood bestowed by the Irish slave owners that lay with my their slaves to give me my unique genetic makeup. I will save a more in-depth discussion of this whole light skin/dark skin mess for another post. I’ll just say the matter has more to do with an age old caste system, predating American slavery, where the poor worked in the sun and rich lounged in the shade than it does with beauty but we’ll come back to that in another post.

    In conclusion I submit that we must open the discussion on the desperate treatment of people of color to include women. Otherwise we will never gain traction in our quest for equal treatment in the law. People of color will continue to be dealt harsher penalties than their white counterpart if we do not make to take on the whole issue. Our ancestors both white and black worked hard to make this country the prosperous nation it is today, from the slaves that were the backbone of our nation’s economy and fought through the mentally a physically crippling atrocity of slavery and still believed in the glorious idea of the American dream to many white citizens of that day that risked life and limb for another races struggle.

    In that time of strife we knew how to work together as a people against the evils that plague the world. Back then it was men, women and even children of all races working together against the malevolent forces of oppression and it is an insult to their sacrifice for us to carry on with this foolishness.