Sikivu Hutchinson: In the American imagination, Black women are the poster children for disreputable irresponsible motherhood and Latina “illegals” a close second.
Most Read Led by Jasmyne Cannick’s “White Feminists Don’t Care about Black Women”
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This week’s top 10 most read was led by Jasmyne Cannick’s White Feminists Don’t Care about Black Women, which points out how major liberal feminist organizations were slow in chastizing local radio hosts when they called Whitney Houston a “crack ho.”
White Feminists Don’t Care about Black Women
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Jasmyne Cannick: why have these two female powerhouse organizations been missing in action on the two Los Angeles talk radio hosts who offended women, particularly Black women, when they called Whitney Houston a “crack ho” three days after her death?
The Movie, “The Help”
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Sharon Kyle: As demonstrated in 1973, the Academy Awards can be used as a megaphone to reach those who are oblivious to the continued state of segregation and, as a result, racial inequality that persists in the United States.
Holiday Pall: Joblessness Crisis Intensifies
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Carl Bloice: The average period of unemployment now exceeds 26 weeks, well above the previous peak in July 1983 of just 21.2 weeks. This is critical because the longer that people of any age are out of work, the less likely they are to find another job.
“The Help” Reflects the Racial Divide, Then and Now
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Sharon Kyle: In a culture where “whiteness” is rarely mentioned and hardly ever critically examined it is not surprising that the women in my church saw the story as heartwarming and uplifting. I, on the other hand, saw this as just another story of the black experience as viewed through the white lens.
Redistricting and California’s African Americans
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Jasmyne Cannick: The bottom line is that they can draw all the Black voter-friendly districts they want but if Blacks continue on this mass exodus to the South, there won’t be enough Blacks left to vote anyone into office and the ones that are left won’t have the same adoration for the political process as their ancestors.
Jobs Crisis Is About People’s Lives, Not the Next Election
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Carl Bloice: If one out of ten people seeking work can’t find any, it follows that the average person has a friend, relative or neighbor amongst them. All she or he has to do is look out the window or answer the phone to be scared.
Black Women: Lighter Skin, Lighter Prison Sentence
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Jessie Daniels: Women deemed to have light skin are sentenced to approximately 12% less time behind bars than their darker skinned counterparts. Having light skin also reduces the actual time served by approximately 11%.
Provincetown’s Not Safe for Black Lesbians
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Rev. Irene Monroe: The sexual and homophobic harassment many of us LBT sisters endure from many of our heterosexual brothers of African descent back home in our communities, or imported from one of the Caribbean Islands has, too, become an inescapably reality at P-town.
Dangerous Distortions: Anti-Abortion Fascists and Third World Allies
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Sikivu Hutchinson and Diane Arellano: As with the abortion-as-black-genocide billboards unleashed by the far right Radiance Foundation, the Latino billboards evoke reductive hyper-religious narratives of sinning promiscuous bad women and “breeder” good women.
A Dialogue Concerning Advocacy and Criminality
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Jonathan Farley: Why do campaigning organisations like the NAACP defend plain thugs but ignore genuine radicals?
Defending ‘Our Mother’s Gardens’
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Sikivu Hutchinson: Whenever a rape case becomes high profile, the inevitable questions about the victim’s reputation, race, whereabouts, and alleged complicity in the assault are trotted out.
To Be Atheist, Feminist, and Black
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Sikivu Hutchinson: Sadly, there is still a fair amount of ignorance and bigotry toward black non-believers in African American communities due to the stereotype that atheists are immoral, rudderless, and not authentically black.
Honoring Black Women’s Roles in Our Health
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Janette Robinson Flint: Black Women for Wellness is delighted with the inclusion of Harriet Tubman as she is a leading icon of the Civil War and with African American history but also because it offers an opportunity to add dimension her life and work.
Womanist and Saying Who We Are
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Rev. Irene Monroe: The secular use of “womanist” is by African-American women who have either left the Black Church because of its gender bias and homophobia, or who do not come from the Black Church religious experience. These women use the term to identify a culturally specific form of women-centered politics and theory.
Trust Black Women: Remove the Billboards
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Jan Robinson Flint: It is reprehensible that someone would use Black children as a tool to attack Black women for political purposes.
Concerning Advocacy and Criminality
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Jonathan Farley: Why do campaigning organizations like the NAACP defend plain thugs but ignore genuine radicals?
Not Only “For Colored Girls”
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Irene Monroe: For Colored Girls is not only for colored girls because it offers a pathway to self-growth, finding our authentic power, and discovering the divine in one’s self.
Representing: The Future of Blacks in Law Enforcement and Fire Emergency Services in Los Angeles
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Jasmyne Cannick: A conversation with the President’s of the Black Employee Associations for the L.A.P.D., Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments
Essence Magazine’s True Color
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Rev. Irene Monroe: There has been a color change at Essence. After forty years of having sisters from the African Diaspora as its fashion directors, the new one — Ellianna Placas — is white. And the news is sending seismic shock waves to many of its subscribers here in the U.S. and across the globe.
Are Black Women Too Hard?
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K. Danielle Edwards: If you’re a black woman, those odds are you’ve heard some incarnation before of this statement: “Black women are too hard, too tough, too difficult.” It may have been part of the lead-in to the punch line of a joke. It might have been words shouted out in anger with an ex. It could have been the “company line” mindlessly uttered by black men who choose not to date black women.
Most Black Married Mommas Could Have Been Statistics
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If 80 percent of white children were born to single white mothers, can you imagine the hue and cry? There would be national conferences on the issue.
When the Brothers Blast You and the…
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To be rendered invisible and unworthy of consideration by men who look like our fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles and the best of who we are – heroes like El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, Jr. – is beyond offensive.
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Black Atheists in the Pulpit
Sikivu Hutchinson: Congregants of Zion Hill Baptist Church in South Los Angeles probably thought Pastor Seth Pickens was certifiable when he proposed a community dialogue with the L.A. Black Skeptics Group.