I want to add: feminism was never the black woman’s fight or issue. During Jim Crow sisters could work in places like Sundown Towns when black men couldn’t. And many actually benefited from working closely with white men. Places like Tawawa House were built as resorts where white slave owners could take their black ‘slave’ mistresses and openly corvort with her without any negative repurcussions. Google Tawawa House. That ish is deep.

In states like Virginia, its public record that white women were divorcing their husbands by the boat loads in the 1800’s, citing their men having adulturous affairs with black slave women as the biggest reason. So this whole notion of an oppressed community of black women needing freedom from her male oppressor is not entirely true.

Even today black women are the most protected community of people in America. And I would argue anyone to prove me otherwise. What other group of people are rewarded for being an underachiever, having multiple children out of wedlock, being government funded through welfare and section 8 housing, having an unrealistic child-like disposition when it comes to dating and sex, and get lauded with television shows that celebrate such behavior?

Sisters get a pass from American society when it comes to being accountable for their actions. Case in point: the chick on the bus who attacked the bus driver and caught the uppercut of the century. She has yet to be charged with the felony she deserves, because people were so quick to excuse her actions when it sparked a just reaction from the driver.

This whole notion of black feminism comes from fictional stories like the Color Purple, which might as well had been a story about martians from outer space. That movie had the most dispicable portrayal of black men I’ve ever seen; second only to maybe Birth of a Nation. And ask most sisters in their 30’s and 40’s what their favorite movie is, they’ll most likely say The Color Purple. Not too surprising though, considering the author Alice Walker is an avowed lesbian black feminist.

Only one correction though to the article: the first black American millionaire wasn’t a woman, but a brother named Paul Cuffe back in the late 1700’s.

But there are reasons for Black women to have a bone to pick with black men in cultural reflection though. During Civil Rights and later Black Power, Black Men reduced a race of people to a race of men making black women an after thought. The contributions of black women in the historical and cultural record of African Americans has been omitted, deemphasized and sometimes outright ignored by black men because they believe their relative oppression leaves no place for that acknowledgement, as if the concept is too complex for black women to handle. Then there are the sexist attitudes that came from trying to duplicate the white system of patriarchy and pass it off as “African”. Black women were equally recruited, equally solicited for and contributed their financial resources to Black organizations (Black Panther Party, US Organization, SNCC (which was started by a black woman), etc.) and to make the same bodily sacrifices as Black men only to be regulated to peripheral status with these organizations. That was not only inconsistent with “African” culture but the cultural synthesis that was responsible for the progress of African Americans from the end of slavery to 1964. The relationship between the black sexes was relatively egalitarian. Black women had built a solid network between the sexes and classes, built anti-lynching and anti-Jim Crow platforms, made business loans, raised funds and handled the logistics for traveling black male activists and their families, built schools, and still had enough energy and resources to advocate for their voting rights. I still wonder: why in every movement or religion Black men decide to create or co-opt it requires putting black women in their “rightful place”? As if they weren’t good at what they did for Blacks but Black Men specifically.

The South African singer Leta Mbutu said: “What I saw was that the men wanted to be in total control-In Africa it isn’t like this. We always give men their role but women have just as strong power as men have and that’s not what I saw happening.”

Amiri Baraka wrote: “All the black women in those militant black organizations deserved the highest praise. Not only did they stand with us shoulder to shoulder against black people’s enemies they had to go toe to toe with us battling day after day against our insufferable male chauvinism”.

Black women didn’t initiate the tension between the sexes with Feminism. Black men taking on the sexist attitudes of white supremacy did that. The tension occurred when black women didn’t let them get away with it.

For example, I believe that many Black men and women have been polarized by feminist propaganda.
Very true words. I may not fully agree with you on the rest of your post I do believe that feminism did play a role in polarizing black women and men. One thing I’ve seen from feminism is the expectation for black men to pretend that race is the only axis of oppression we know and for black women to pretend that gender is the only axis of oppression they know.

If I talk about race I can pretty much count on feminists to come out of the woodwork to back me, as long as I keep it strictly on race because the moment I throw some gender in there I become the black patriarch that wants to oppress women in hopes of getting buddy buddy with white men.

What baffles me is that despite this feminists seem to have no problem leaving black women hanging when it comes to race.

Know your enemy, people. The evil white man is gone and has been replaced by a sneakier, more malignant oppressor.

http://www.tastymojo.com/LouisvilleMojo/photos_pgp/093/PG7432020080109062112593093.jpg

Black feminists were involved in community building. The movement has become bastardized by an angry element of women who most likely have been a child of a single parent household and poor/low quality male interaction. These women have been raised with man-like qualities because it was

1)expected of them

2)prudent for survival reasons and lastly

3)lack of significant support in the community to be anything other than.

I have heard men say that they want a woman who’s ‘got her own’. That getting her own came at the cost of an inter-dependant feminity. You can’t have it both ways, fellas. Either you want the inter-dependant woman or your want an independent woman. If you are running into mad as hell sista, think about what has made her mad? The men on the corner sexually harassing her, the racism that she faces at work, the painful yet accepted sexism that she faces within her own community? And yes, dear author, being absent and depriving support is abuse.

1. Africans allowing women to lead and be queens is true. But Africa is a HUGE continent. We can see from many ancient tribes still in existence with their culture fully in tact, that that is not 100% true. I don’t have stats on the percentage of tribes where the women play a more subordinate and submissive role. But to declare the statement that African women have always had leadership responsibilities and power seems off.

2. Within feminism there are a variety of perspectives. There are plenty of women who take take feminism to the level of “we don’t need men,” “men are the oppressor,” etc. But Most women who identify as feminist believe that all it really means is that a woman should have the right to choose the type of life she would like to live. If she would like to stay at home with the kids–create that. If she would like to work and be a mom–create that. Rather than society choosing for them.

3. I just completely disagree with you. The feminist movement is not what caused men to stop raising families and getting married. And what is hilarious is that this is ironically sounding like more of that “blame the woman for all of our societal problems” talk that you are saying does not exist among black men.

And a good proposal for those concerned with the current boy crisis in our country..

http://www.shrink4men.com/

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avoiceformen/2011/09/14/what-makes-a-man-a-man

http://youtu.be/Tol4MGSpyz8

I first began my advocacy of creating an awareness of the negative impact of feminism on society (the black/brown community in particular) in the early years of my clinical practice and in various academic circles.I began to see a paradigm shift that led to less gender neutrality in various treatment modalities. This shift was parallel to the “change” that was taking place in society’s feminist influenced thinking as a whole. The shift to focusing exploration of womens issues in the context of their relationship to the men in their lives was indicative of society’s eventual progression towards the current “blame game” that takes place in many gender focused discussions. We began emphasizing accountability for men while extending them very little compassion. This was ruthless of course and it is respecting men but not necessarily loving them. On the other hand society began to emphasize compassion for women while extending them very little accountability.. it is infantilizing and it is loving women but not necessarily respecting them.

There are a number of byproducts of this which include but are not limited to the destigmatizing the term unwed mother by lumping women that had children out of wedlock in with divorced mothers and widows, referring to them as “single parents. With this for example came the unintended consequence of empowering generations of women towards acceptance of the current “babymam” phenomena. You see referring to an unwed mother as a single mother is empowering in that it createss the narrative of a “strong black woman that made it in spite of…”. So if a child attends college it is the testatment of the strength of a single mother..if the same child were to become incarcerated it is an indictment of the colossal failure of men/fathers. Unbelieveable! Another unintenede consequence is the current “boy crisis” where the education disparity is growing, male suicide is increasing and the anti-male bias and bashing in society continues to become common practice.

These idealogues no longer push for equality but they dominate the dialogue that has led to both subtle and overt notions of men=bad, women=good. I am old enough to remember a time when the social contract that had existed for thousands of years between man and woman was the crux of healthy vital societies. No, everything was not perfect, but children were more likely to be raised within the structure of family. The current conflicts between men and women and the subsequent break down of black family was not as prevalent as it has become. Something happened as the women’s liberation movement began to push more aggressively for “equality” and for the rights of women to have their roles evolve in society. With this push the social contract was broken on one side. While men continued to be held to an expectation that would honor their side of the social contract, radical feminist ideologues began to reshape the thinking of society with growing influence in many areas including education, policy and in my personal experience even the feminization of psychology.

Feminist began to assert the notion that patriarchal oppression was responsible for many of society’s ills and at its most radical end that the social contract that had protected marriage and family was merely constructed for the benefit of those that sought to keep women “oppressed.” We swallowed hook line and sinker and began enjoying rights without responsible which is best characterized in the feminist mantra “my body my choice”….someone elses responsibility? And what do we have to show for being “sexually liberated” with COMPLETE control over reproduction (20+options for birth control pre-conception and access to safe abortions or adoption post conception)? An illigitimacy rate that increased exponentially over several decades aggresively approaching 8 in 10 while we continue to reduce it to merely a defiency in “black manhood.” Our community has been held hostage by liberal feminist idealogues for decades and we now see the detrimental impact of buying into this ideology and the subsequent policies.

Oh and these young men may not be able to fully understand the message but they are starting to demonstrate more outward objections to the comparative difference in expectation that society has place on them. But one will never hear this injected into conversations regarding equality by idealogues. What is coming, is the tipping point where men and boys will inevitably begin to aggressively “push back.” A society that despises its men runs the risk of creating a society of despicable men. The good thing is that there are a growing number of men and women that no longer will accept the lowered expectations and dependency upon these ideologues that have contributed to the rapid deterioration of our families, community, values and subsequent economic decline.

I have stood in the trenches alongside many men in the fight for a womans right to “choice”… these men that fight so passionately would have their rights not even welcome in discussions regarding reproductive by the very women for whom they fight so passionately for. There is a groweing coalition and together we can achieve true equality for all that “TRULY BELIEVE” in fairness. We can no longer dismiss our mens voices from the discussion focusing on their behavior without any exploration of the underlying causes, their feelings, and continue to make assumptions about their feelings (or lack of). Feminism has contributed largely in part to the current gender conflicts and hurts in our community. A sentiment expressed by a few in my field of study is the idea that “hurt people, hurt people.” We are hurting in our community and as it stands now we continue the cycle without ever really looking at some of the real problems.

It is far to easy to simply reduce it to a need for men to “man up” (what an emasculating term since we as women shuld never engage in defining manhood) as our president has suggested on a few fathers days. Do a little research, work on increasing our capacity for perspective taking, engage in objective dialogue, seek truth and share as this author has done.

Signed,
A sista long tired of talking bout it..Busy being about it!