A picture speaks volumes. What do you see?
Please realize that each time the black community does something to create cohesion and unite, the efforts are dismantled by the old "divide and conquer" tactics.
In the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was overshadowed by a Women's Movement that seem to come at a time when national focus was finally being devoted to our cultural struggle. When the Black Panthers were at their height of effectiveness, it was largely run by women. Women ran the free lunch and WIC programs. Women outnumbered the male membership as many of the males were incarcerated or slain. Sadly, these same women would be enticed to abandon our movement in order to join their voices with yet, another Women's Empowerment Movement. When the buses were loaded and the Million Man March took place in Washington, almost immediately, a Women's March took place and removed the focus from the plight of African Americans and the accomplishment of the dialogue created that could begin to heal our communities.
And, most recently, The 1000 Man March (@1000menmarch on IG) took place in Atlanta. The following day, the news broadcasts followed the fanfare of the Women's Marches that took place in several key cities across the nation. Intentional or not, the convenience of ignoring the positive strides of the black community, only furthers the ignorance of the masses as we try to educate them as to the inequalities that exist in our American culture.
You see, feminist movements are an effective distraction as well as a divisive tool to take the focus and strength away from a larger argument. By taking black women out of an essential struggle and using them to anchor another, the might of the first argument becomes weaker.
As a community, we need the voices, actions, spirit and totality of our strong, black women. Even when the marches seem to focus on the males, we realize that the support of the female is still vital. Black woman, you complete us. You are the center of the black family, not a footnote in an argument that fails to benefit you. If you choose to lend your voice to a struggle, consider joining it to those of the black family, the black schools, the all-too-often muffled voice of the black male.
I support the idea of a feminist movement. I take nothing away from their arguments. However; I do question the convenience of their timing. Maybe I wouldn't seem so cynical if they lent their voices to our struggle and then coordinated a time when we could lend our voices to theirs. We all have something to say, but my mother used to say, "If everyone speaks at once, no one can be heard". Let's not take away from each other when, together, we could do so much more. Too many coincidences begins to look like a plan...
But, this is just ONE Man's Opinion... What is yours?
#itsunclesean
Nice and necessary point, dear brother! One point I would make is, it IS intentional and we as women need to wake up and smell that coffee...quick! Use the power we have for US ALL, not just for women's issues.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree, and like the way you made your argument. More black women need to see and understand this. In the black community there are less man than women. We may produce more men, but do to factors like: incarceration, homosexuality,and police brutality we lose a lot of our men. The percentage of men to women in our community is about 52% to 49%. We not only lose a lot of our men to those factors, but to other races as well with interracial relationships and marriages. Black women do to, but when we calculate the murders, the homosexuals, and how many of us are in prison for damn near life the women out number the men. It is our responsibility to set the tone for our struggle. Not just because of numbers, for our roles that we play as well. Women are strong and are the creators, we are God. Especially black women since everyone came from us. We help drive men to their highest being, and for us to jump ship on our own struggle with skin color in America and join in the sex game is to betray not only our men, but our children and ourselves. We need not to get involved in a fight with two powers that created and ignores to recognize our plight as black people globally. We should always do for ourselves because their intention is to never help us out. They may give us something small from tome to time, and we'll accept it because we subconsciously want acceptance from them. But it will never be enough. If they ever intended for us to be equal with them to begin with, then we wouldn't have these problems in our communities on an economic and social level. That is why we must only focus on ourselves, especially black women because we are the leaders, and wherever we go everyone follows.
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