The Combahee River Collective Statement

A Black Feminist Statement From The Combahee River Collective

We are a collective of black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As black women we see black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.

We will discuss four major topics in the paper that follows: (1) The genesis of contemporary black feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific province of our politics; (3) the problems in organizing black feminists, including a brief herstory of our collective; and (4) black feminist issues and practice.

1. THE GENESIS OF CONTEMPORARY BLACK FEMINISM

Before looking at the recent development of black feminism, we would like to affirm that we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American women’s continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation. Black women’s extremely negative relationship to the American political system (a system of white male rule) has always been determined by our membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes. As Angela Davis points out in “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves,” black women have always embodied, if only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them and their communities in both dramatic and subtle ways. There have always been black women activists—some known, like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknown—who had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique. Contemporary black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters.

A black feminist presence has evolved most obviously in connection with the second wave of the American women’s movement beginning in the late 1960s. Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation. In 1973 black feminists, primarily located in New York, felt the necessity of forming a separate black feminist group. This became the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO).

Black feminist politics also have an obvious connection to movements for black liberation, particularly those of the 1960s and 1970s. Many of us were active in those movements (civil rights, black nationalism, the Black Panthers), and all of our lives were greatly affected and changed by their ideology, their goals, and the tactics used to achieve their goals. It was our experience and disillusionment within these liberation movements, as well as experience on the periphery of the white male left, that led to the need to develop a politics that was antiracist, unlike those of white women, and antisexist, unlike those of black and white men.

There is also undeniably a personal genesis for black feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual black women’s lives. Black feminists and many more black women who do not define them-selves as feminists have all experienced sexual oppression as a constant factor in our day-to-day existence.

Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and, most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression. The fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives did not allow us, and still does not allow most black women, to look more deeply into our own experiences and define those things that make our lives what they are and our oppression specific to us. In the process of consciousness-raising, actually life-sharing, we began to recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from that sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.

Our development also must be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of black people. The post-World War II generation of black youth was the first to be able to minimally partake of certain educational and employment options, previously closed completely to black people. Although our economic position is still at the very bottom of the American capitalist economy, a handful of us have been able to gain certain tools as a result of tokenism in education and employment which potentially enable us to more effectively fight our oppression.

A combined antiracist and antisexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capitalism.

2. WHAT WE BELIEVE

Above all else, our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for autonomy. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression. Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to black women (e.g., mammy, matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bulldogged), let alone cataloguing the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation is us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.

This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression. In the case of black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough.

We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of black women by white men as a weapon of political repression.

Although we are feminists and lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors. We struggle together with black men against racism, while we also struggle with black men about sexism.

We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political- economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy. We are socialists because we believe the work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work and create the products and not for the profit of the bosses. Material resources must be equally distributed among those who create these resources. We are not convinved, however, that a socialist revolution that is not also a feminist and antiracist revolution will guarantee our liberation. We have arrived at the necessity for developing an understanding of class relationships that takes into account the specific class position of black women who are generally marginal in the labor force, while at this particular time some of us are temporarily viewed as doubly desirable tokens at white-collar and professional levels. We need to articulate the real class situation of persons who are not merely raceless, sexless workers, but for whom racial and sexual oppression are significant determinants in their working/economic lives. Although we are in essential agreement with Marx’s theory as it applied to the very specific economic relationships he analyzed, we know that this analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as black women.

A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. In our consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways gone beyond white women’s revelations because we are dealing with the implications of race and class as well as sex. Even our black women’s style of talking/testifying in black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. We have spent a great deal of energy delving into the cultural and experiential nature of our oppression out of necessity because none of these matters have ever been looked at before. No one before has ever examined the multilayered texture of black women’s lives.

As we have already stated, we reject the stance of lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly black men, women, and children. We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society: what they support, how they act, and how they oppress. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per se—i.e., their biological maleness—that makes them what they are. As black women we find any type of biological determinism a particularly dan-gerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. We must also question whether lesbian separatism is an adequate and progressive political analysis and strat-egy, even for those who practice it, since it so completely denies any but the sexual sources of women’s oppression, negating the facts of class and race.

3. PROBLEMS IN ORGANIZING BLACK FEMINISTS

During our years together as a black feminist collective we have experienced success and defeat, joy and pain, victory and failure. We have found that it is very difficult to organize around black feminist issues, difficult even to announce in certain contexts that we are black feminists. We have tried to think about the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the white women’s movement continues to be strong and to grow in many directions. In this section we will discuss some of the general reasons for the organizing problems we face and also talk specifically about the stages in organizing our own collective.

The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions. We do not have racial, sexual, heterosexual or class privilege to rely upon, nor do we have even the minimal access to resources and power that groups who possess any one of these types of privilege have.

The psychological toll of being a black woman and the difficulties this presents in reaching political consciousness and doing political work can never be underestimated. There is a very low value placed upon black women’s psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist. As an early group member once said, “We are all dam-aged people merely by virtue of being black women.” We are dispossessed psychologically and on every other level, and yet we feel the necessity to struggle to change our condition and the condition of all black women. In “A Black Feminist’s Search for Sisterhood,” Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion:

We exist as women who are black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our struggle—because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world.’

Wallace is not pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of black feminists’ position, particularly in her allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action. If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.

Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships. Here is the way male and female roles were defined in a black nationalist pamphlet from the early 1970s.

We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. He is the leader of the house/nation because his knowledge of the world is broader, his awareness is greater, his understanding is fuller and his application of this information is wiser. . . . After all, it is only reasonable that the man be the head of the house because he is able to defend and protect the development of his home. . . . Women cannot do the same things as men—they are made by nature to function differently. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. Men are not equal to other men, i.e., ability, experience, or even understanding. The value of men and women can be seen as in the value of gold and silver—they are not equal but both have great value. We must realize that men and women are a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. Both are essential to the development of any life.

The material conditions of most black women would hardly lead them to upset both economic and sexual arrangements that seem to represent some stability in their lives. Many black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives cannot risk struggling against them both.

The reaction of black men to feminism has been notoriously negative. They are, of course, even more threatened than black women by the possibility that black feminists might organize around our own needs. They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hard-working allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing black women. Accusations that black feminism divides the black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous black women’s movement.

Still, hundreds of women have been active at different times during the three-year existence of our group. And every black women who came, came out of a strongly felt need for some level of possibility that did not previously exist in her life.

When we first started meeting early in 1974 after the NBFO first eastern regional conference, we did not have a strategy for organizing, or even a focus. We just wanted to see what we had. After a period of months of not meeting, we began to meet again late in the year and started doing an intense variety of consciousness-raising. The overwhelming feeling that we had is that after years and years we had finally found each other. Although we were not doing political work as a group, individuals continued their involvement in lesbian politics, sterilization abuse and abortion rights work. Third World Women’s International Women’s Day activities, and support activity for the trials of Dr. Kenneth Edelin, Joan Little, and Inez Garcia. During our first summer, when membership had dropped off considerably, those of us remaining devoted serious discussion to the possibility of opening a refuge for battered women in a black community. (There was no refuge in Boston at that time.) We also decided around that time to become an independent collective since we had serious disagreements with NBFOs bourgeois-feminist stance and their lack of a clear political focus.

We also were contacted at that time by socialist feminists, with whom we had worked on abortion rights activities, who wanted to encourage us to attend the National Socialist Feminist Conference in Yellow Springs. One of our members did attend and despite the narrowness of the ideology that was promoted at that particular conference, we became more aware of the need for us to understand our own economic situation and to make our own economic analysis.

In the fall, when some members returned, we experienced several months of comparative inactivity and internal disagreements which were first conceptualized as a lesbian-straight split but which were also the result of class and political differences. During the summer those of us who were still meeting had determined the need to do political work and to move beyond consciousness-raising and serving exclusively as an emotional support group. At the beginning of 1976, when some of the women who had not wanted to do political work and who also had voiced disagreements stopped attending of their own accord, we again looked for a focus. We decided at that time, with the addition of new members, to become a study group. We had always shared our reading with each other, and some of us had written papers on black feminism for group discussion a few months before this decision was made. We began functioning as a study group and also began discussing the possibility of starting a black feminist publication. We had a retreat in the late spring which provided a time for both political discussion and working out interpersonal issues. Currently we are planning to gather together a collection of black feminist writing. We feel that it is absolutely essential to demonstrate the reality of our politics to other black women and believe that we can do this through writing and distributing our work. The fact that individual black feminists are living in isolation all over the country, that our own numbers are small, and that we have some skills in writing, printing, and publishing makes us want to carry out these kinds of projects as a means of organizing black feminists as we continue to do political work in coalition with other groups.

4. BLACK FEMINIST ISSUES AND PRACTICE

During our time together we have identified and worked on many issues of particular relevance to black women. The inclusiveness of our politics makes us concerned with any situation that impinges upon the lives of women, Third World, and working people. We are of course particularly committed to working on those struggles in which race, sex, and class are simultaneous factors in oppression. We might, for example, become involved in workplace organizing at a factory that employs Third World women or picket a hospital that is cutting hack on already inadequate health care to a Third World community, or set up a rape crisis center in a black neighborhood. Organizing around welfare or daycare concerns might also be a focus. The work to he done and the countless issues that this work represents merely reflect the pervasiveness of our oppression.

Issues and projects that collective members have actually worked on are sterilization abuse, abortion rights, battered women, rape, and health care. We have also done many workshops and educationals on black feminism on college campuses, at women’s conferences, and most recently for high school women. One issue that is of major concern to us and that we have begun to publicly address is racism in the white women’s movement. As black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and black history and culture. Eliminating racism in the white women’s movement is by definition work for white women to do, but we will continue to speak to and demand accountability on this issue.

In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving “correct” political goals. As feminists we do not want to mess over people in the name of politics. We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. We are committed to a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice.

As black feminists and lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggle before us.

——————————————————————————–

NOTES:

1. This statement is dated April 1977.

2. Michele Wallace, “A Black Feminist’s Search for Sisterhood,” The Village Voice. 28 July 1975, pp. 6-7.

3. Mumininas of Committee for Unified Newark, Mwanamke Mwananchi (The Nationalist Woman), Newark, N. J., c. 1971, pp. 4-5.”

Black feminism/WOC feminism is not for privileged women

There’s been a misunderstanding for the four years I’ve been online that the feminism I espoused online and in real life is for privileged women. Black feminism or women of color feminism because not at of us are black is not for privileged women. The members of the Combahee River Collective were not privileged. These early proponents of black feminism were poor, lesbian, women of color activists. They wrote the Combahee River Collective Statement 31 years ago when racism and sexism were much worse. The Statement focuses equally on fighting racism of white feminists and sexism of men of color. The third focus is fighting capitalism.

If you look at my tag cloud, you’ll see my entire blog is about the Combahee River Collective Statement. Gender/sexism and Race/racism are tied for first, followed by class/Capitalism. Throw in politics for good measure because it’s all related.

The National Black Feminist Organization was founded in 1973. Two years later

Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke and Gloria Akasha Hull and other female activists tied to the civil rights movement, Black Nationalism or the Black Panther Party established, as an off-shoot of the National Black Feminist Organization, the Combahee River Collective, a radical lesbian feminist group. Their founding text refered to important female figures of the abolitionist movement, such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Welles Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, president of the National Association of Colored Women founded in 1896. The Combahee River Collective opposed lesbian separatism, considered that they focused exclusively on sexist oppression and not on others oppression (race, class, etc.) They rejected all essentialization or biologization, focusing on political and economical analysis of various forms of domination. The Combahee River Collective, in particular on the impulse of Barbara Smith, would engage itself in various publications on Feminism, showing that the position of Black women was specific and added a new perspective to Women’s studies, mainly written by White women.

In 1977, they wrote the Combahee River Collective Statement, the classic women of color feminist text in the United States.

An exchange

Donna, to think by scanning a sample of blogs (non-randomization) and referencing certain texts to show that women of color feminist do not confront sexism within their communities is not empirical. Furthermore, you do not acknowledge the privilege you have to have blog to put forth opinions when some feminist of color by virtue of class and age may not have access to the internet or may have access but lack the privilege of time to create a blog.

Like I said in an earlier comment or post, this pattern is reflected everywhere else though I am not privy to what black women talk about in black churches. If women of color bloggers aren’t talking about women who can’t afford internet access definitely aren’t talking about it.

Donna, claiming that you do heavy theoretical lifting in the communities in which you criticize does not justify the gross generalizations you make in reference to women of color feminist. Furthermore, just like there are various types of feminisms there are various women of color feminisms. And I am not sure you have done the heavy theoretical lifting in all these areas of women of color feminisms.

I’ve done heavy theoretical lifting in each community I’ve been a part of, APIAs, white feminists, WOC and white progressives, not communities everybody’s been a part of. There are two main strains of women of color feminism, black/women of color/Chicana/Asian feminism as laid out by the Combahee River Collective Statement and postcolonial feminism/transnational feminism/third world feminism. You can do searches on google or Wikipedia for this.

Donna, your privilege shows in your ability to tell women of color feminist what their agenda should be. Your arguments and tone is reminiscent of white women and men of color telling women of color to choose when choosing means “smiting your nose to save your face.” For the most part, women of color feminist know that their identities are intersected in such away that making simple declarative statements for either identity does not get at the complexity of their oppressions.

Again, it’s a matter of degree. No one realizes the lack of balance in the discussion of racism of white women vs. sexism of men of color vs. capitalism. These are the three main topics discussed in black feminism and postcolonial feminism. Read the two Wikipedia definitions linked on my WOC feminisms post.

I am not telling other women of color what their agenda should be. Like I said on that thread, the only thing that bothers me is people should not act like I’m crazy when I do exactly what the Combahee River Statement Collective tells me to do. In fact, a quote from my “Statement” post today:

Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and, most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression. The fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives did not allow us, and still does not allow most black women, to look more deeply into our own experiences and define those things that make our lives what they are and our oppression specific to us. In the process of consciousness-raising, actually life-sharing, we began to recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from that sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.

But it also bothers me that I get 0% reciprocation for two years yet people expect 100% support from me which I gave unquestioningly for two years. They already decided to only talk about race and white people so what do I get out of it? I wonder if it’s just a lack of respect or appreciation of me because it’s 2008 not 1968 so it should be easier to talk about but people are willfully refusing to. So I write intersectionality stuff on my blog and go other places then people get upset because they aren’t saying anything related to my needs. I will reengage if you say something that meets my needs too. I have to talk about intersectionality, every kind, not just racism of white women. This is not about privilege it’s a lack of appreciation of me and my needs. Joan Kelly in comments reminded me this is NOT AN INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE FOR ME. It it my survival just like writing about race is for you. Writing about intersectionality is something I have to do to STAY ALIVE. I’m not telling anyone what to write, I’m telling you what I NEED TO WRITE. Last month, I said postcolonial feminism makes me SUICIDAL so you can imagine in the personal sacrifices to my health it takes to read about postcolonial feminism.

Donna, to be honest, if I conducted the same methodology (i.e. content analysis) on your blog as you have done to others, I would find a theme of pro-Hillary support devoid of examining her racial privilege. Once again support of a candidate should not mute critique of that candidate. The intersectional gaze must also extend to Hillary.

My posts about Clinton should be viewed separately from my other posts. The only reason I post about her is to counter the sexism in the blogosphere and media which is desperately needed in this country. I have readers who are Clinton supporters too. Clinton works for women and children of all colors, won’t start another war and it’s possible the Obama campaign manufactured the race-baiting according to The New Republic. Every racist incident is covered by many white and POC bloggers so it’s repetitive. Very few talk about intersectionality and Clinton.

In particular black feminism is in response to the lived experiences of black women, not just black women experiences with white women or white people, but also in response the gender oppression, class oppression, and homophobia within black communities. I can list the countless books that detail this.

When in the world did I say this is about white people? I am the ONLY PERSON who says women of color feminism SHOULD NOT BE ABOUT WHITE WOMEN OR WHITE PEOPLE. I’m the only person who says we should STOP TALKING ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE.

You’re probably wondering, “Well what about your new blog, asking black feminist 10 questions.” If you read my disclaimer it states, “Some of the questions are generalizations. Some of the questions are more of a rant than a question. Some of the questions say “public” or “publicly” as way to say outside of certain women of color blogs and occasional list serve email, we do not hear black feminists discussing these questions in great detail.

“And of course if we do not hear does not mean that these conversations are not happening.”

These questions are not to say these are the only things black feminists should focus on or should be focusing on. Honestly, we would like to know if these conversations are happening if so why and if these conversations are not happening why aren’t they. These questions are just to begin a dialogue.”

I know we similar interests and have come to the same generalizations.

Furthermore, I also question your critical acclaim of certain blogs for challenging sexism only. Some of these blogs do not recognize that the same gender oppression that we rail against also affects the men of color in ways that restrict unconventional forms of masculinity and sexuality. I think we should be careful not to reinscribe what we hope to liberate ourselves from by not seeing the oppressions various people with our community’s experience. Furthermore, these same blogs you stump for have very conservative black middle class understandings of womanhood.

No, communities of color don’t talk about women’s sexist oppression within the community OR how traditional masculinity oppresses men of color. The solution for BOTH is women of color feminism but no one wants to talk about feminism in communities of color or other gender oppressions like homophobia. The blogs you mention talk about racism more than sexism too but there’s more of a balance.

Donna, finally, it is one thing to say that you do not hear people talking about it. This makes for conversation and people can say “well I feel the same way, I don’t hear” or “well such and such said this” etc. This type of format is not an indictment, but a place for many types of conversations. But it’s another ball game to say that women of color feminist, in particular black feminist (in which I self-identify as) DO NOT talk about sexism within their communities because that is not true.

That’s why I’m grateful for the conversation you’re having on your blog. But how many blogs are like yours?

A Black Feminist Statement: The Combahee River Collective

UPDATE: The Combahee River Collective Statement HERE.

That’s the real title from But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies. It’s interesting you posted the Combahee River Collective Statement, the classic text of women of color feminism in the United States, because it proves my point black feminism or women of color feminism because not all of us are black not postcolonial feminism is the de facto women of color feminism in the United States. You said black feminism was like white feminism because you didn’t know I talk about black or women of color feminism everywhere on my blog.

If I’d known the hidden agenda was about only counting feminism from woc that mirrored that of white women ie intraracial condemnation of misogyny (which is certainly part of it)

The evil, hidden agenda of the Combahee River Collective Statement, the classic text of feminism for women of color. I’m going to stick to intellectual arguments so I don’t appreciate stuff being made up about me in that thread because you are threatened by 1) the fact I was really the first person to say all three feminist waves were inspired by black historical events 2) the amount of evidence I produced that the blogosphere does not discuss sexism in communities of color. You can now see where I come up with numbers like 1/1000 or 1/100. Go to any woman of color blog and count the number of posts about racism including sexism when it’s about racism, i.e. white women’s or men’s fault compared to sexism of men of color. You’ll get numbers like 1/1000. I propose an exercise. Look at a woman of color blog (besides mine or WAOD associated blogs) on Google or Bloglines and count the number of posts about racism including posts about sexism when it’s about racism i.e. white women’s or men’s fault compared to the number of posts about sexism of men of color. Racism (this is almost always of whites) or sexism of men of color should be the main gist of each post. When you get to 100 of only these two kinds of posts, compare the number of each with the other. You’ll be shocked. Like I said in my internalized sexism post three months ago:

The Combahee River Collective Statement states there are two main goals of women of color feminism:

1. fighting the racism of white feminists
2. fighting the sexism of men of color

The Statement focuses on these two goals equally. The third focus is fighting capitalism.

Here are statements about sexism in communities of color.

Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and, most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression. The fact that racial politics and indeed racism are pervasive factors in our lives did not allow us, and still does not allow most black women, to look more deeply into our own experiences and define those things that make our lives what they are and our oppression specific to us. In the process of consciousness-raising, actually life-sharing, we began to recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from that sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.

We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of black women by white men as a weapon of political repression.

An example of the kind of revelation/conceptualization achieved through consciousness-raising occurred at a meeting when we discussed the ways in which our early intellectual interests had been attacked by our peers, particularly black men. We discovered that all of us, because we were “smart,” had also been considered “ugly,” i.e. “smat-ugly.” “Smart-ugly” crystallized the way in which most of us had been forced to develop our intellects at great cost to our “social” lives. The sanctions in the Black and white communities against Black women thinkers are comparatively much higher than those against white women, particularly ones from the educated middle and upper classes.

Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships. Here is the way male and female roles were defined in a black nationalist pamphlet from the early 1970s:

We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. He is the leader of the house/nation because his knowledge of the world is broader, hs awareness greater, his understanding is fuller and his application of this information is wiser….After all, it is only reasonable that the man be the head of the house because he is able to defend and protect the development of his home….Women cannot do the same things as men–they are made by nature to function differently. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. Men are not equal to other men, i.e., ability, experience, or even understanding. The value of men and women can be seen as in the value of gold and silver–they are not equal but both have great value. We must realize that men and women ar a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. Both are essential to the development of any life.

The reaction of black men to feminism has been notoriously negative. They are, of course, even more threatened than black women by the possibility that black feminists might organize around our own needs. They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hard-working allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing black women. Accusations that black feminism divides the black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous black women’s movement.

I quoted the last paragragh here before. It’s a thankless task to talk about sexism in communities of color and Clinton these days but I have no fear because I know I’m right. Who said I don’t do heavy theoretical lifting in every community I’m a part of? What’s truly ironic is the person who didn’t believe I did heavy theoretical lifting in every community I’m a part of suggested I read a post that I inspired based on you guessed it my heavy theoretical lifting.

Becky’s Fund

Former Survivor contestant Becky Lee’s website Becky’s Fund:

The mission of Becky’s Fund is fourfold:

1) Foster awareness: help people understand the elements of domestic violence through education, such as how prevalent it is, why battered women can’t always leave easily, and what can be done to fight against domestic violence,

2) Encourage advocacy: encourage people to care about ending domestic violence,

3) Promote activism: take an active role in helping battered women find safety through counseling, education and legal representation, and

4) Create support: provide financial assistance to organizations that support victims of domestic violence by awarding grants to small organizations.

Dear Friends,

Over the last 8 years I have been working with survivors of domestic violence, as an advocate, a lawyer, and as a friend. I imagine many expect me to have a personal experience with domestic violence that inspired my own involvement in combating it and its effects. I have none. However, during college I realized how close this issue is to all of us, how it affects not only my friends and family, but also how it affects the future of my own children.

As some of you may know, I was a competitor on the past season of the TV reality show Survivor. One of the reasons I decided to try out was to bring more publicity to the issue of domestic violence. I have been disappointed with the way our community hides behind our pride, hiding behind the right to privacy. We claim that when domestic violence occurs, it is none of our business.

But it is. Domestic violence does happen, and can happen to anyone, regardless of background, socioeconomic status, or age. We need to openly address this issue so that we can tackle it and find ways to help those who are struggling with domestic violence to find safety for themselves and their children.

With the award money I received from the show, I decided to start a fund to help provide support to domestic violence organizations working with marginalized and immigrant communities. While working with non-profits helping battered women over the last eight years, I’ve been witness to the serious underfunding of the smaller organizations that work on the front lines of their respective communities against domestic violence. These smaller groups are left out of the spotlight and never recognized for their work, and work with severely stretched budgets. This is why I formed the Becky Lee Women’s Support Fund.

I know there is only so much one person can do to bring hope to these battered women who are looking for a way out. But together, I believe we can help these battered women, one by one, find restoration and peace in their lives again. We can change many lives together.

I ask you to join us at Becky’s Fund in this fight to end domestic violence. There are so many ways to help out and support this cause. We need your help to raise funds, find eligible grantees, and to spread the word about the prevalence and seriousness of domestic violence.

Thank you for caring about this issue. I know together we can make a difference.

Thank you,

Becky Lee

Executive Director
Becky Lee Women’s Support Fund

More comments

Roy had interesting things to say about class in the class exercise comments. As a nation, we rarely talk about class. As a result, we’re ignorant about it:

It’s sometimes amazing to me how people who have radically different experiences of money will sometimes not have any understanding of what that means. At my last job, a co-worker was talking about how his parents had lost their house when he was a child, and another co-worker tried to say that she knew what that was like and exactly how he felt about it, because when she was a kid, her parents got a divorce, and they had to *sell the summer house* as a result. Because selling one of the three houses your family owns is, you know, the same as being *homeless*… You can’t always tell if someone is homeless unless they tell you.

This is because we don’t ask people what class they are unless we’ve known them a long time. Whereas most of the time we can immediately tell what someone’s race and gender is. We need to talk more about class because talking about stuff helps it go away. It being the gap between the rich and poor. The invisibility of poor people creates myths such as the Welfare Queen:

I think another thing that happens with the invisibility of class issues is that it helps create mythologies that are harmful- I’m thinking of how images like The Welfare Queen become the accepted image of a person on public assistence, despite the fact that such abuses are incredibly rare. But, what happens is that people who are on public assistence and working are far less visible and far less likely to be approached for interviews and far less likely to make the news, and so we end up with this public face that’s not in line with the majority reality. And then people want to cut or halt public aid to the people who aren’t abusing the system.

But like with white and male privilege the focus should not be on poor people but hegemonic white males, capitalism, neoliberal policies, corporations, free trade agreements, globalization and lobbyists who pressure politicians to screw over workers and the environment. I have a lot of guilt because I was materially spoiled (not in any other way though) and the exercise in that thread brought up all kinds of guilt. Luckily for me, it was discredited, ironically, as classist. A few years ago, a friend (who is a Democratic Party leader in Florida now at 26, yay!) suggested my running around town doing every kind of activism was borne out of guilt and martyrdom. I still haven’t figured things out. Then again a different friend in that gang called me a “limousine liberal.” Anyway it’s hard for me to talk about class.

Listen to the Silence 2008

Via WOC PhD:

Listen to the Silence 2008
12th Annual Asian American Issues Conference

Saturday Jan 26, 2008 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Stanford University
Events, meals and housing are free

Mission Statement 

Justice - Today in the 21st century, social justice continues to elude Asian American populations. As globalization enriches some, low-income Asian American immigrant workers in garment factories, hotels, and restaurants continue to suffer from economic exploitation in America. As medical technology advances, socioeconomic and cultural barriers continue to threaten health care access for Asian American populations. Lack of representation in the media and the government continue to render Asian Americans invisible to greater American society.

Unity - In the face of injustice, unity is a powerful weapon. To achieve justice, Asian American communities must collectively recognize a broken system, and combine their different experiences and voices to create one powerful, resounding voice that cannot be silenced. United, our community can achieve educational equity, a living wage and benefits for workers, and rights for immigrants.

Action - For students, education can provide the initial impetus to pursue social change. But, unless we take visible action and create audible outcry, no change can be implemented or sustained. Our conference workshops highlight the work of those who are taking action in the Asian American community, and who are empowering others in their respective journeys.

The schedule is interesting. Check it out.

You knew it was coming

Or not. Probably not. Classism is the last -ism people talk about because it’s still taboo to talk about poverty, money and class. We can talk about sex, politics, religion, mental illness, sexism, racism or homophobia but it’s still taboo to talk about poverty, how much people make and peoples’ class standing. Bint has class privilege exercises to gain a better perspective on class. Mark in bold the ones that reflect your experience. The class taboo is also reflected in political discourse. Discussions of classism, class, poverty, socialism, capitalism or economics usually come after discussions of sexism, racism or homophobia.

When you were in college:

If your father went to college, take a step forward.
If your father finished college
If your mother went to college
If your mother finished college
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
If you were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
If you had a computer at home
If you had your own computer at home
If you had more than 50 books at home
If you had more than 500 books at home
If were read children’s books by a parent
If you ever had lessons of any kind
If you had more than two kinds of lessons
If the people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
If you had a credit card with your name on it
If you have less than $5000 in student loans
If you have no student loans
If you went to a private high school
If you went to summer camp
If you had a private tutor
If you have been to Europe
If your family vacations involved staying at hotels
If all of your clothing has been new and bought at the mall
If your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
If there was original art in your house
If you had a phone in your room
If you lived in a single family house
If your parent own their own house or apartment
If you had your own room
If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
If you had your own cell phone in High School
If you had your own TV in your room in High School
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
If you ever went on a cruise with your family
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.

In childhood:

If your body does not bear long-term signs of malnutrition. (For example, my teeth are marked up from poor nutrition when they were forming.)
If you had orthodontia.
If you saw a doctor for anything other than emergencies or school-mandated shots.
If you heated your home with clean-burning fuels or had properly vented heating.
If you grew up in a house without vermin.
If you had running water.
If you had a basement or foundation under your house.
If you had an indoor toilet.
If your parents and immediate family were outside the criminal justice system.
If you yourself remained outside the criminal justice system.
If your parents had a new car.
If you never went barefoot so that you could ’save your shoes for school.’
If your parents never argued in front of you about having enough money for food to last out the month.
If you ate hunted and fished meat because it was a recreational activity rather than as the major way to stock a freezer.
If your laundry was done at home in a washer rather than in a lavandaria. (Laundromat)
If your hair was cut by a professional barber or hair stylist instead of your parent.

Now you can hate me but I have problems you’ll probably never know about because it’s not nice for me to discuss them.

Violence against women by men continues to cause more casualties than wars do today

The Guardian:

Organised crime: the $2 trillion threat to the world’s securityMuch of the income, more than $520bn, that flows through the world’s black economy comes from counterfeiting and piracy. The drug trade is the second biggest earner, with an estimated $320bn in takings. Human trafficking is a small industry by comparison, worth under $44bn but arguably the most pernicious. According to the UN, up to 27 million people are now held in slavery, far more than at the peak of the African slave trade. The majority of the victims this time are Asian women.

The report says: “Violence against women by men continues to cause more casualties than wars do today.” One in five women around the world will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. The situation is so bad schools should teach girls martial arts for self-defence, it says.

“We have departments of defence around the world protecting people. What’s the department of defence for women?” Mr Glenn asked.

More slaves than at the peak of the African slave trade. If most slaves are Asian women, most slave owners are Asian men, but most people will blame the trafficked girls and women before holding the traffickers responsible.

The Young Women’s Empowerment Project

Via BFP, what looks like an awesome organization and website:

Young Women’s Empowerment Project

Girls do what they have to do to survive. We listen. We’ve been there.

Mission

Our mission as the Young Women’s Empowerment Project is to offer safe, respectful, free-of-judgment spaces for girls and young women impacted by the sex trade and street economies to recognize their goals, dreams and desires. We are run by girls and women with life experience in the sex trade and street economies. We are a youth leadership organization grounded in harm reduction and social justice organizing by and for girls and young women (ages 12-23) impacted by the sex trade and street economies.

Our Values

We combine five different philosophies to do our work. We think that they are all really connected to each other and our mission.
* Self Care
* Empowerment Model
* Harm Reduction
* Social Justice
* Popular Education

What We Believe

* Confidentiality. Anything that is said here stays here. We use anonymous identifiers to keep records of what we do.
* Harm reduction. We support young women and girls in making any decisions in their lives that they want. We don’t tell anyone what to do or who to be. We think that youth are the best at making decisions about their lives.
* No requirements of youth. Any young woman or girl impacted by the sex trade/street economy can participate.
* Every participant is smart and can contribute to the project immediately. We don’t think that people need to be sober or out of the trade to express their thoughts and feelings, help us out, or to learn.
* Sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia intersect and deeply affect the trade and girls and women who are involved. We can’t talk about the trade without talking about these issues.
* Solidarity with boys/men/transgender persons involved in the trade. This issue isn’t only about women and girls.
* We like girls and women. We don’t think they are “a problem,” “hard to work with,” or “difficult.”
* We are lead by women who have been there. We call the shots.
* We believe people who know this life are the ones who should be around this group.
* We strive to have respect for everyone. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, where you’re at, who you are, or what your opinions may be.
* People don’t need labels. We respect youth by not labeling them as problem youth, delinquents, etc.
* We don’t want girls to “be saved.” We are here to support young women in making decisions about their lives.
* We do not have one set of ideas. We don’t think that girls in our project should, either.
* Our views about the trade are always changing. We reserve the right to change our minds when we learn new things.
* We are not a social service agency. We do not provide case management.
* Everyone can help make decisions.
* We believe in partnerships between youth and adults, and partnership means that adults don’t make all of the decisions.
* We believe that girls do not “seek out” abuse. Girls do what they need to do to survive.
* Our experiences in the street economy/sex trade do not define who we are, or who we may become.
* We believe that involvement in the sex trade/street economy does not suddenly become harmless based on age, sex, or gender. We believe in listening to people who are involved to find out what is happening.
* Girls have their own language and understanding about the sex trade/street economy. Everyone who is living it is the expert.
* Small is best. We don’t want to be a monolithic ‘agency.’ We offer different spaces, different ways of understanding, and we feel most comfortable with small arrangements.

The Carnival of Radical Action, Sixth Edition

Dr. Elle and Vox will be hosting the undoubtedly mind blowing sixth edition of the Carnival of Radical Action: Radical History. It will be posted in early December. Radical submissions are due November 29. By radical, we mean really good stuff like the previous carnivals! Check out previous carnivals for ideas!

The RWOC put out the best, most mind blowing carnivals so I’ve only read every word of the first one at M’s which is no longer available. Maybe I’ll be able to read every word of the second, third, fourth and fifth Carnivals for Radical Action over the winter holidays:

She who stumbles: Second Carnival of Radical Action!

no snow here: Carnival of Radical Action III: The Allied Media Conference

Having Read the Fine Print: Carnival of Education- Radical School Edition, Carnival of Radical Action: Back To School edition

A Woman’s Ecdysis: Carnival of Radical Action 5: Revolutionary Change

ellephd:

Inspired by the wonderful M…“Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.”

That is, according to my limited research, an African proverb that I first encountered at nubian’s site. But as a historian who minored in world history (with a focus on west central Africa) and specialized in the U.S. since 1945, I knew it to be true. Despite all that I learned in my African history courses, the Africans and their descendants whom I studied in my U.S. courses had no history, no background, no lives. They just appeared one day in Jamestown to serve English settlers. That was what the hunters’ history emphasized.

That is just one of the many reasons that for the sixth edition of the Carnival of Radical Action, Vox and I want you to explore making radical history. How do we create and participate in radical history? And how do we chronicle it? (This is a question that dominates my mind as I continually reflect on my long-term goals as a historian.)

Some food for thought:

• How do radical activists incorporate history into their activism?

• What are the processes involved in forming radical, history-shaping movements in our day and age (i.e. how do we initiate, shape, translate into action our responses to injustice and violence against and within our communities)?

• How do we learn from the past and incorporate radical themes in our work?

Vox and I are co-hosting the carnival here. You may submit posts here, use the Blog Carnival submission page, or contact Vox or me. The deadline for submissions is November 29, 2007 and the CoRA will be posted in early December.

Vox ex Machina:

Carnival of Radical Action, Sixth EditionDr. Elle and I are co-hosting the sixth Carnival of Radical Action over at her place. It’s the radical history edition! We want to see entries about creating and recording radical history, forming history-shaping movements, and how history is incorporated into activism. Please check out Elle’s announcement for more information (seriously, click the link).

The deadline is November 29, and the carnival will go up at some point in early December. You can submit entries via the blog carnival page or by contacting Elle or me.

bell hooks: Pop culture and the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy

In case you missed it. There are eight parts. My favorite part was in part IV:

bell hooks: The O.J. Simpson case was not compelling to me personally because the deepest terms in relation to Guy Debord’s work on the notion of spectacle was it was situated as spectacle from the very beginning and that construction of it as a kind of carnival as a spectacle meant one could not participate in that without colluding with the very forces of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy that had lead to the violent death of Nicole Simpson in the first place.

I concur.

2ND EDITION OF ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN ISSUES, CONCERNS, AND RESPONSIVE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCACY

The second edition of Asian American Women Issues, Concerns and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy by Lora Jo Foo is out. The first edition (2002) is an excellent resource and this edition looks even better.

Announcing the second edition of Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy by NAPAWF Founding Sister, Lora Jo FooAsian American Women: Issues, Concerns, and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy reveals the struggles of Asian American women at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder where hunger, illness, homelessness, sweatshop labor and even involuntary servitude are everyday realities. The health and lives of Asian American women of all socio-economic classes are endangered due to prevalent, but inaccurate stereotypes which hide the appalling level of human and civil rights violations against them. The book captures their suffering and also the fighting spirit of Asian American women who have waged social and economic justice campaigns and founded organizations to right the wrongs against them.

We encourage you, fellow sisters, to meet with your chapters and discuss your thoughts and ideas about the issues the book raises. Several of the chapters of this second edition were updated by women activists and advocates around the country. We encourage you to invite these courageous women to your meetings so that they may share their experiences and help facilitate active and productive discussion.

To thank you for your hard work and commitment to the movement, current paid NAPAWF members may purchase the book at a discounted rate. Supplies are limited so order your copy today!

ISBN (paperback): 0-595-45299-X
ISBN (hardcover): 0-595-90115-8
$19.95, Exclusive NAPAWF Member Discount Price: $15.00
$29.95, Exclusive NAPAWF Member Discount Price: $25.00

To purchase with the membership discount, visit their online store. For information contact aawbook@napawf.org.

Also available for purchase at iuniverse or by calling 1-877-823-9235.

(via BrownFemiPower)

Epistemic privilege

At the Feministe thread, OMG Teh Hysterical Feminists Again!, young white liberal men tell feminists they don’t know what they’re talking about wrt reproductive rights. Feminist bloggers know what they’re talking about wrt abortion. If male bloggers read feminist blogs more they would defer to feminists on abortion.

Standpoint theory says oppressed groups know better about their oppression as they have epistemic privilege over the dominant groups, e.g. women over men, working class over wealthy.

Donna at The Silence of Our Friends wrote Bitter Laughter about the same thing. White feminists often tell women of color feminists they don’t know what they’re talking about wrt race. Women of color know what they’re talking about wrt race.

In general, as progressives and as a progressive community, white male progressives should believe what feminists say, white feminists should believe what women of color say and the wealthy should believe what working class people say.

Tuesday Link Love

Stuff I found interesting (in Bloglines order):

A Woman’s Ecdysis: Confronting Split Women

Black Chronicle: A Missed Opportunity

Chicago Tribune: Judge’s probation ruling called ‘revenge’

Chicago Tribune: Justice Department may probe bias in Jena

What About Our Daughters?: BREAKING NEWS!: Enough is Enough to Protest Outside the Home of Viacom’s CEO This SATURDAY!

Jack and Jill Politics: Kill a dog, go to jail, kill a Black boy and nothing happens

Question 1 - Since when did this country abandon the 12-person jury rule in CRIMINAL TRIALS?

Question 2- Another ALL WHITE JURY? Unless this was Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Wyoming…..WHY WAS THERE AN ALL-WHITE JURY?

I know that this young man was no ‘innocent’. But, he was only 14. He deserved to be written off at the age of 14? Am I not the only one offended by that? He was sent to a place like that, because they wanted to give him a chance to straighten himself out. He wasn’t sent there TO BE MURDERED.

And, that is what happened to him.

HE WAS MURDERED.

He was MURDERED by a GROUP of people….and nobody is going to be held accountable for it.

Another young Black male thrown away and discarded; murdered at will, and nobody’s responsible?

He was ONE child…they were a GROUP of ADULTS…..and, their only option was to MURDER HIM?

The demonization and dehumanization of our children to the point where we find excuses and justifications for their demise.

‘He was a bad kid’.

‘He broke the law.’

Why is it that OUR children don’t get to make ‘youthful mistakes’. Why are they not given the time to straighten themselves out. Either we want to lock them up and throw away the key, or, as in this case, just discard them altogether.

LOOK at the picture at the top of this post. Just LOOK at it. Don’t detach yourself from it. Once again this society says that OUR children aren’t worth much of anything. And, I think that’s wrong. Fundamentally wrong.

Naomi Wolf: American Tears

NewBlackMan: How Do “We” Keep a Social Movement Alive?

The Silence of Our Friends: Anti-oppression vs the civility of polite society

Electronic Village: Final Call Interview with Megan Williams

Prometheus 6: Report Ranks Jobs by Rates of Depression

Black and Missing but not Forgotten: National March against Hate Crimes: Megan Williams

NATIONAL MARCH AGAINST HATE CRIMES:
MEGAN WILLIAMS: KIDNAP, TORTURE AND RAPE VICTIM IS FOCUS OF NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

When: Saturday November 3, 2007 12:00 noon

Location: Charleston, West Virginia. Beginning in front of West Virginia State University and Marching to the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston.

March Purpose: To bring national and statewide support to Charleston resident Megan Williams, the Williams Family and victims of other hate crimes nationwide. The Jena 6 case, the rise in the hanging of nooses and other current acts of injustices and intimidation against Blacks/African Americans will all be highlighted at this National March against Hate Crimes. Families and victims of hate crimes that are occurring throughout the nation will attend. Black Lawyers For Justice, the Williams Family and organizers are demanding that Federal Hate Crimes charges be brought in the instant case. They are also demanding Congressional hearings on hate crimes against Black residents as well a wide range of actions to combat the growing attacks on Blacks in America.

Who are the Organizers? The primary march organizers are Black Lawyers For Justice (BLFJ) and the Support Committee For Megan Williams. This march will be endorsed by at least 100 Black organizations, student groups, clergy and leaders of every stripe. An initial endorsement list will be produced on 10-15-07.

NPR: Author: ‘Rich White Kids’ Get More College Breaks

NPR: GAO: Poor Management Had Role in Boot Camp Deaths

Thinking Girl: bias

Automatic Preference: Round-Up

UBUNTU!: NEW!: “NO!” Study Guide

XicanoPwr: The Latino Challenge to Black America: Q & A With Earl Ofari Hutchinson

We all live in Jena. We all live in Iran.

–commenter NLinStPaul

on Nezua’s beautiful and moving photo essay, One More Moment Before We Bomb. This can’t be real. Someone please stop it before it happens.

It’s all the same thing

My mind kept running after the last edit of my last post/link love/roundup. I said:

Jena is not only about these six boys. The criminal injustice system is the forefront of the modern Civil Rights movement like immigration is the forefront of the Latino American movement. It’s not just black men and women who are disproportionately locked up but children are being locked up in juvenile detention centers. Slavery and lynching have been replaced with locking up and throwing away the key. And convict labor. Corporations are profiting off the labor of prisoners.

People don’t see the connection between the Iraq War and pet issues like immigration and prison reform. They’re the same thing except the immigration and race wars are fought on our own soil.

They all involve racism/colonialism/capitalism/exploiting resources and labor/Halliburton.

The Iraq War is about oil, a resource that does not belong to us, so we plunder other nations for theirs. The immigration debate is about exploiting the labor of undocumented workers who came here because of US trade policies. If they don’t behave/are here because they had no choice, they are locked up Halliburton detention camps. I spoke about the new slavery or the incarceration of blacks and corporate exploitation of convict labor.

I’m going to take it a step further.

Women’s pet issue, abortion, is also about exploiting resources and labor. The pro-life movement keeps women poor and uneducated so it can exploit women’s bodies and labor to produce more soldiers for war. The UN says girls’ and womens’ education is the key to women’s equality in the world and pro-lifers know pregnancy prevents girls and women from finishing high school and college. The Democratic Party and progressives do not know this.

So women’s pet issue involves sexism/colonialism/capitalism/exploiting resources and labor.

This pet issue doesn’t involve Halliburton. Yet. You’ve heard of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The war against women and people of color is fought here and abroad in the name of exploiting resources, labor and profit. It’s all the same thing. That’s why I and so many others talk about sexism, racism and capitalism all the time. Educating about sexism, racism and capitalism/free trade/market fundamentalism is the key to solving these problems. If only our stupid American celebrities also spoke up about these things. If only Bill Clinton with his massive political capital spoke up about these things.

It’s progressives’ responsibility to understand feminism and anti-racism, why these issues matter to people and how they’re interconnected. Everyone should be like Roy at no cookies for me who learned about feminism and anti-racism. It doesn’t matter why he did this, what matters is he understands the issues, advocates for them and possibly even sees the interconnections. Progressives should be like that. That’s why his blog is called “no cookies for me.” There are many people like this and he’s just one example.

Stuff I found interesting

My Ecdysis: Carnival of Radical Action 5: Revolutionary Change looks fabulous. Check out the similarly fabulous last three months of her blog. That’s how long I’ve been reading her blog and it’s been…fabulous.

Document the Silence: I’m excited about this new blog which organizes around stories of violence against women of color we don’t hear enough about in the mainstream or progressive media.

The purpose of this blog is to document the silences within our relationships, within our homes, within our families, within our communities, within our jobs, within our schools, within our churches, temples, and synagogues, within our governments, and within our world. We want you to share with the world all your stories of injustice. Stories that the media, elected leaders, self appointed leaders, associations, and organizations choose to ignore and not speak out on. We want to document so many silences that the silences become uncensored uninhibited noise.

What About Our Daughters? has done an admirable job live-blogging the Congressional Hearings on the Degradation of Black Women in Hip Hop. Yes, they were really live-blogging there. Their podcast, Black Women’s Roundtable, this week is about Nailah Franklin, Dunbar Village and Megan Williams. They also have the most comprehensive coverage and advocacy of the <a href=”
http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/search/label/Dunbar%20Village”>Dunbar Village case.

Jay Smooth: Hip-Hop Is Giving Me A Rash. Jay’s take on the Congressional Hearings on the Degradation of Black Women in Hip Hop.

Rachel’s Tavern: The young woman in West Virginia who was tortured and sexually assaulted was likely held captive for a month.

Document the Silence: Megan Williams Assistance Fund Established

Feministe: The New York Times cites a Philadelphia study that says divorce is at its lowest rate since the 70s. This is very significant because it means feminism has been good for marriage despite all the anti-feminist rhetoric that says feminism causes divorce.

NPR: Details of Jena

The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.

The following Monday, Dec.4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.

XicanoPwr: Details of Jena

Prior to Justin Barker’s beating, Robert Bailey, one of the Jena 6, was also “beaten” just like Barker by a group of white students when he entered an all-White party held at the Jena Fair Barn. Upon his arrival, Bailey was hit with fists and hit with beer bottles. Yet, only one, Justin Sloane, was later charged with simple battery and ultimately received probation. Nobody mentions that it was Justin and a group of whites, which included the three noose hangers, taunted Robert Bailey and other black students. According to reports, they used the word “n*****” and mocked Bailey for having his “ass whipped.”

I have to say Jena is not only about these six boys. The criminal injustice system is the forefront of the modern Civil Rights movement like immigration is the forefront of the Latino American movement. It’s not just black men and women who are disproportionately locked up but children are being locked up in juvenile detention centers. Slavery and lynching have been replaced with locking up and throwing away the key. And convict labor. Corporations are profiting off the labor of prisoners.

Chris Bowers: On Leverage

Matt Stoller: On Leverage

Good point

Hullabaloo:

It’s a weird experience reading Hersh’s article on the plans for war in Iran. They couldn’t sell the idea of the nuclear threat. So now they’re gonna sell the war with a different reason. The mind boggles.Let’s go over that again. One excuse doesn’t work, so they come up with another. And if that one doesn’t fly, you can bet your bippy they’ll find a third. The important thing is: sell the war.

Got it? That means there is no real reason to go to war with Iran. If there was, they wouldn’t be switching reasons when they don’t poll well. Bush and Cheney just want to do it. That’s all. They just want to.

I can’t believe this is happening. And I have no idea how this can be stopped. This is sheer madness, not only on Bush’s part. A press that isn’t howling loudly about this, a political class that isn’t speaking up as one to prevent this, and finally, a public that can’t be troubled to protest warmaking on a whim - the country is as insane as it was in the fall of ‘02.

And that is really fucking scary.

Another good point from Cenk here who cracks me up in a gallows humor kind of way at the moment. Why not attack Malaysia instead of Iran? My mom was really funny nine months ago. She’s a CNN junkie so she said to me and my dad, “You know what? The war. It’s BECAUSE OF THE OIL!!!” Okay Mom, that’s three or four years late. Her big issue/obsession is impeachment. I often hear her say, “Dammit, why don’t they impeach?” Good point, Mom. Lately, CNN has been so negative she’s been listening to classical music instead.

The Shock Doctrine

More from Democracy Now!:

Naomi Klein examines some of what she considers the most dangerous ideas — Friedmanite economics — and exposes how catastrophic events are both extremely profitable to corporations and have also allowed governments to push through what she calls “disaster capitalism.”

Some of my other favorite people have written books recently on similar themes. Naomi Wolf wrote “The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot”.

You will be shocked and disturbed by this book. Most Americans reject outright any comparison of post 9/11 America with the fascism and totalitarianism of Nazi Germany or Pinochet’s Chile. Sadly, the parallels and similarities, what Wolf calls the ‘echoes’ between those societies and America today, are all too compelling.

Naomi Wolf sounds the alarm for all American patriots. We must come together as a nation and recommit ourselves to the fundamental American idea that no president, whether Democrat or Republican, will ever be given unchecked power.

The framers of our Constitution fully understood that it can happen here. Patriots like Madison, Paine, and Franklin would certainly applaud Naomi Wolf and recognize her as a sister in their struggle.”

Susan Faludi wrote “The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America”.

Susan Faludi has written a brilliant, unsentimental, often darkly humorous account of America’s nervous breakdown after 9/11.

Susan Faludi, as always, is simply stunning. With heroic acuity, she digs through the mythological debris of the Bush era to recover the dark fairytale—shades of white savagery on the early Frontier—that founds the vengeance fantasy we call the ‘war on terrorism.’

An important contribution to our understanding of the cultural and political reaction to 9/11, which shows how deeply ingrained beliefs about masculinity, femininity and sanctified violence have shaped our national identity, and our ways of responding to crisis.