I was having a discussion with a friend quite recently and we were discussing feminism. I commented how black women had their own term for feminism, womanist as a result of being excluded from the white feminism movement. She commented how she doesn’t understand why race is even factored into the equation and added that black women weren’t necessarily excluded but that not many black women were feminist. The latter isn’t the case at all a famed black feminist; Audre Lorde made a famous speech regarding the exclusion of women of color from a feminist conference entitled “The Masters Tools will not dismantle the Masters House” (get familiar). And black women have been feminist before the term was invented anyone remembers Sojourner Truth and her famous “Aint I Woman” speech?
What stood out from this conversation for me is my friend’s reluctance to admit race was very much so apart of our lives. She called me a racist for saying race was very much a part of the lives of black people. People of color are constantly discriminated against whether they consciously think about it or not. This inspired me to think about aspects of my life and determine how much of my existence and the people around existence are determined by our race?
I attended an all black school as well as many black children in Chicago and what does this mean? Illinois behind New York has the biggest gap in funded between white and black children. Thousands more are spent on white children. This means a greater education for one group than the other. Then right-wing conservatives and Ward Connelly’s uncle tom ass argue against affirmative action. You’re right some of those blacks’ students aren’t prepared for college. It’s not because they aren’t as smart no it’s because their education was filled with a curriculum that didn’t prepare them for college. Think about it even the highest performing students at some all black schools aren’t prepared for college because they receive an education comparable to their white counterparts. What happened to the progress made by Board v Education like fifty years ago?
How about housing? I grew up in all black neighborhood riddled with violence, crime and poverty. MLK made a comment once about the segregation of Chicago and still forty years later that segregation exists. There’s countless of communities in Chicago blacks don’t even make up a percentage of the population or it’s so insignificant it’s not even worth mentioning.
There’s the obvious injustice of our criminal ‘justice’ system. There’s no secret blacks make up around 13% of drug users even though you probably couldn’t tell if you lived on the Southside of Chicago lol but make up around 70% of all prosecuted drug offenders. This means jails are filled with non-violent drug offenders. One in eight black men between the ages of 20-34 are in prison. And the rates of black women are rising as well. I would need another note to describe the rampant sexual assault of imprisoned women. The reality is most convicts return to prison. For those who want attend to college upon release the government won’t assist them if they’ve been convicted of a felony.
My friend said some black people are lazy. UM some people from every race are lazy. In hard economic times, blacks suffer the most. Unemployment rates for blacks are always higher than whites but when you factor in a recession forget about it. How many black and Latino families lost their homes in this mortgage crisis? Countless. And why did black and Latino lose their homes in such a disproportionate way I don’t know maybe it’s because minorities are targeted for those shitty sub prime loans? Black women are supposedly welfare queens… please last time I checked the banks were getting bailed out. Right now the auto industry and banks are the real welfare kings.
If we think about it globally people of color are the poorest people on the earth.
I will use the words of my favorite columnist Mary Mitchell and say talking about race doesn’t mean you are racist. Furthermore not talking about race is like ignoring a big ass pink elephant in your living room-it can’t be done. Ignoring racism doesn’t change anything I would say just the opposite is necessary. I will end this by saying I applaud the countless individuals that participated in the civil rights movement and it saddens me to think I live in a generation that doesn’t realize the fight isn’t over.
Any thoughts?…
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