Marissa Alexander

Unbelievable.

Lucca's 99 problems

As an African American, and as a woman I have the ability to observe parallels in the isms sexism and racism, and find concerning hypocrisy and double standards.

Simply ask yourself this question, when has there ever been an African American man who raised concerns about the use of the word nigger in a song, tv show, advertisement etc and someone refuted the claim for racism based on the mans appearance, background, history etc. Every black man can scream and moan about racist comments and NO ONE asks - well is he a good representative of African Americans. No one does that because it is irrelevant. If you murder someone, and I say it is wrong it doesn't become any less or more wrong that you murdered someone if I also have. It only means that possibly we are both murderers, the question is whether or not murder is wrong. When Rodney King was beaten for his race, no one examined whether or not he was an upstanding AfAm man who represented his race well, they simply and correctly identified the wrong - racism and addressed it.

I encourage us to identify the wrong and address it. Equally irrelevant to the question as to whether or not Lucca and Adam were inappropriate in choosing this song is whether anyone said anything to Jay before for it. As I said, if Jayz had murdered someone and no one said anything, and then Lucca murdered someone in the same way we wouldn't say - well Jay didn't hear about it so why criticize Lucca.

So again, the question is simply is it appropriate or inappropriate to spew out the words "If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a b*** ain't one".

That is the question. Not whether or not someone else said it first, not whether or not we can handle a woman choosing to be sexually provocative (which is NOT degrading to women - sexuality is NORMAL), now what the person who said something about it was wearing is it or is it not wrong.

The question of wrong and right then becomes more practical. So what is wrong? That is so subjective. I think it is a better question - does it harm anyone? That is even more practical and an even more useful discussion to have. And then, if it does harm anyone, to what extent, who does it harm, why does it do so, and what responsibility did either Adam or Lucca have in choosing to harm.

Since women are so systematically discriminated against, many men and a lot of women are so desensitized to misogyny that they don't recognize it or understand the harm. It has become "normal" . It has become so "normal" to have someone stand on a stage and call women derogatory names that we actually attack the sane person who points out the basic obvious fact = calling women as a group and expletive - is degrading. Look up the definition of degrade and that is the definition.

Now, because it is so hard for us to even recognize being insulted because it is so normal I will use an analogy to this using race instead since in this society we have come to appreciate that in popular culture derogatory racial slurs are still in the public eye frowned upon (despite systematic racism still thriving).

Only when races are insulted to people actually see basic principles that are often ignored when it comes to women.

So if a white artist sang "If you're having darkie problems I feel bad for you white, I got 99 problems but a ****** ain't one"; all of America would have banned the voice. It would have been pulled from the air. No sponsors would endorse it and NO ONE would have said ANYTHING to any black person who made a comment about it besides "right on" "I support you".

Whenever you are faced with these questions - is it ok to sensationalize and popularize derogatory slurs against women, just ask yourself - if this were about race - what would I say. And likely you will see through the bull shit and see the truth.

YES - it matters that you say b**** 1 million times on TV and sing it in songs and use slurs that are derogatory against women. YES - it does harm people. Read. Read the science and literature that tells you what you already know - it impacts the self esteem and self worth of individuals when the group that they belong to is degraded in society.

READ about the way in which all genocides begin with degrading a race of people to subhuman by the use of WORDS and LANGUAGE in order to enact societal wide harm against them.

READ about the struggles that many races have fought for to make sure derogatory racial slurs be removed for popular culture - most mainstream tv shows, movies, and songs. Name me a popular song where racial slurs are used by whites against minorities in truly derogatory ways repeatedly. If minority men are so adamant about making sure that they are not degrading in music by boycotting and shutting down anyone who uses a racial slur in the public eye, why don't those same people see how women would be just as concerned about getting rid of derogatory gender based slurs used in popular culture?

Shout out to Christina for making that statement. And props to her for wearing whatever she wants. You dehumanize someone when you make them one dimensional, women can be sexy, provocative - does NOT mean she is less than a woman, doe NOT mean she is degrading women because she wears sexy clothing. No ONE said anything about Prince and MJ grabbing crotches etc. Sexuality is NORMAL part of human function. How the hell do you think we all got here? You can't put women in a box - only women who dress a certain way have the right to be respected.

Just like a gansta rapper who says nigger all day long, and is a disgrace to his race would be supported if he claimed racism when a news anchor uses the word nigger - NO ONE woman should be accosted by her peers for pointing out basic truth that calling women as a group a derogatory slur in national television is wrong DOES have a negative impact on women and men and IS part of why women have low self esteem, are victims of violence and more human rights offenses across the globe than have been committed by all of the racial atrocities added together. More women die from gender discrimination than ALL of the wars on the planet EVER.

And of course racial slurs and gender based slurs are only as good as they are powerful right? If there is no power dynamic then nigger is just a word, b**** is just a word. But in a society where people were beaten and killed to the sound of white yelling nigger, and in a society where women are gang raped to the sound of men yelling b**** and whore, these words are powerful as words, but also in action. They are part of HOW people enact violence against others. Once you dehumanize a person ANYTHING is possible. Racial slurs and gender based slurs and homophobic slurs are the first step in making it easier to discriminate against, and initiate violence against these groups.

I encourage you to READ. Know your history as a woman. Know the history of sexism, the continued struggle not just here but overseas. You all know that blacks had to fight to overturn Jim Crow laws to vote in the 60s, but did you know that women didn't get the right to vote until after black men did? You all know about racial discrimination in home ownership, but did you know that BY LAW women were not allowed IN THIS COUNTRY to own property? Did you know that marriage used to be a contract providing OWNERSHIP of a woman to a man. Only until recently have women not been PROPERTY! And in many places in the world they are still treated as cattle. 1 in 4 women WILL BE raped in this country. The most common cause of death among young african american women is murder by an african american male. WAKE UP! There is a HUGE struggle. And YES just as blacks felt that the use of derogatory terms was an affront that struggle WOMEN need to wake up and realize the same.

And afford yourself the same right to live in an environment that respects your gender as well as your race. Protect your right to tune into a show that does not spew out racial slurs AND holds the same standard for gender based slurs.

Finally, UNDERSTAND what black men and Hispanic men and gay men have known and have fought for centuries - it DOES impact your group as a whole to have derogatory slurs spat off in songs, social media, tv shows, and movies. They march and stand up and scream and kick about ANY racial slur even the slightest insinuation of a racial slur. But when a woman says - hey and also - I don't want gender based slurs spewed everywhere - the entire society chokes the breath out of her with abuse - criticism and ridiculousness. Appreciate and think about this. The misogyny of women is so entrenched and ingrained in you that you can't see the basic issue with the word b****, no this society embraces the one who says it and chastises the woman who raises up against being called it. THINK. THINK. THINK.

Read Half the Sky as a starter

Why Focus on Educating Girls?

Shout out Watoto - Blog Topic: Instruments of their own oppression

"Part of the mechanics of oppressing people is to pervert them to the extent that they become the instruments of their own oppression." Kumasi in "Crips & Bloods: Made in America"

It has taken me some time now, but I understand. It still hurts and boils my blood but I have focused on resolution. How can I fix it, not I just can't believe it.

Women, that is, particularly women of color participating in their own demise. When Lil Wayne puts out a song that denigrates a woman to and I paraphrase here: open her legs for a price (filet Mignon) sisters blog and cry out about the fact that the woman he wishes to denigrate and exploit is "red bone", and how he doesn't want to degrade and dehumanize a dark skinned woman. Really?




Is that the issue with this one? Is it the shade of her skin what we should focus on or the fact that because of her sex she is being dehumanized?

But then, I forget about oppression. The success of black oppression, classism, and sexism have converged upon the minority woman in ways that for long time now have been self sustaining.

She herself will request to be the one degraded. I find black women posting on blogs demanding that he talk about some dark skinned women too since his focus on "red bone" women is colorist and hurtful. What? "Why don't you want to sexually exploit a dark skinned black woman huh huh ?" They ask with disdain. But why do we live in a world that glorifies, celebrates, and rewards you lil Wayne for sexually exploiting women. This is what is missing from the conversation. Nod to Watoto from the Nile, the 10 year old among one of us who got this part of it.

I am not saying that colorism isn't an issue. I am just saying that to overlook the fact that the entire construct is damaging and wrong is a little short sighted. But when you are so conditioned as not to respond to someone's blatant dehumanization of you because you've accepted that status, all you can see is the race aspect. Black women in particular are very in tune with racism and will almost uniformly join together in defense of race, but when sexism and racism converge as they often do in the black woman's experience, she sees and focuses only on race. How can this be reconciled with the reality that she likely has 1 in 4 of her friends who have been victims of rape, how can she continue to overlook that because of her sex people in washington are trying to take away her reproductive rights? , because of her sex she is limited in her options for equal pay and wealth in this society, because of her sex she will meet oppression and discrimination that threatens her very life. How can it be? Then you remember, she is an instrument of her own oppression.

Yes "colorism" is important and not to be diminished. But don't miss the blatant disregard for your status as human and the glorified denigration to sexual object for sale by your "brothers" who are as much a victim in this as you in their own demise. By degrading black women they buy into the patriarchy norms of American culture which requires of them to define their masculinity by dissolving the humanity of women.

Inhumanity of women

I spent my younger years concerned about racial inequality. I was passionately opposed to apartheid. I was well versed in the civil rights movement of the 60s in the US. I had no idea who Susan B. Anthony was. I had read Malcolm X's biography, Nelson Madella's, Martin Luther Kings. I had hosted events, talks, programs at my University for the rights of minorities.
I had no idea I was not considered a person by many of the men whose ideas I was trumpeting about.
I had no idea that none of them had been talking about me when they spoke of freedom.
I had no idea that had I been married to many of these "freedom fighters" many of them would not have supported my becoming a physician and a person of power and authority. I thought all of those years that when people spoke of freedom they meant freedom for all. But I now understand, they meant freedom for all men.
What a misuse of energy and investment.
I should have been fighting for freedom for women.
No one told me about Alice Paul in my history classes. No one went on about the 1919 revolutionary advancement in the right to vote for women. No. But I was made to watch movies about the sit ins in the south.
As a black woman, I was taught so much about how I had been discriminated against as an african american, but nothing about how I had been discriminated against as a woman.
Now in the setting of these political debates, my heart sinks.
I literally feel my skin falling to shreads about me.
I feel like I am in another century.
Men arguing about whether or not a woman should be able to choose to carry a child or not. So representative of their sense of entitlement and dominance over women, not as people but as property.
It is so utterly painful and inhumane, I can hardly stomach the thought that it is true.
I knew of the atrosities committed by people overseas, forcing women into invisibility, beating and raping them for sport and "right". But I did not know I would have to fight for basic human rights - the right to autonomy over ones body - here at home.
It simply drains my energy.
I am so appauled.

see this review on black women and feminism:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1395468?seq=1