African American Women: Where They Stand

On Monday, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams kicked off their series African American Women: Where They Stand, a five-part series exploring some of the issues facing African American women. Veteran reporter, Brian Williams opened the segment by introducing the critical issue of education and the large disparity in achievement between African-American men and women graduating from college. Knowing that I was not going to catch the first segment, I asked my friend and fellow writer Renee Cole to check it out and let me know what she thought. Below is her review:

Rehema Ellis, an African American NBC General News Correspondent began by featuring Mia Jackson, a 39-year old single mother from Maryland, who graduated from Stanford University and currently owns a successful marketing business.

A Black woman that graduated from one of the top schools in the U.S. and owns a successful business is hardly stereotypical, but when Ellis comments that Jackson "likes being in charge," and then adds, "it is the reason she left the corporate world,” one can’t help but wonder if she is suggesting that that is the same reason Ms. Jackson is single. And therein lies the stereotype: Black women want to run stuff. They like to be in charge and society (read white people) can’t deal with an assertive Black woman.

The report continued by highlighting the huge disparity between Black women and Black men as being 'rooted in education.' Ellis stated 64% of college graduates are women outnumbering men at college campuses 7:1. She mentions the reasons for the disparities are complicated alluding to the fact that there are other implications regarding the social status of African American men. She goes on to say, "Some people blame schools that often give up on African American males at the elementary level."

After a short portion of the video for the rap song, In Da Club by 50-Cent plays in the background, Ellis says, "In a society that celebrates bad boy images Black males get the idea that dropping out of school is better than staying in."

Without going into too many details the subliminal message here is young Black men are too busy getting caught up thinking that living a thug life and surviving long enough to rap about it can lead to success faster and easier than attending school and graduating.

The segment was short-- about 2 minutes in length, but unlike other mainstream features about African Americans, I feel it was fair, balanced and consistent. Ellis presented the reality that Black women like Mia Jackson are using education to make great economic strides controlling their own destiny and yes, in charge! Ms. Jackson hopes that her daughter, a sophomore at Stanford, continues to promote the advancement of African American women.

The point is Black women are using education to make power moves, do the damn thing and make it happen. You can believe Black women stand high and mighty when it comes to education and economic achievement, but Black women often stand alone. If Black women are excelling while Black men are lagging behind, falling prey to social injustices and a pervasive subculture called hip hop, what will be the overall impact on African Americans? That is something that should be addressed, but in all fairness to Ms. Ellis, the segment was about Black women.

Boys Gone Wild

Okay so these Duke boys were off the chain. I think and hope we can all agree on that. Where the conflicts, tensions and confusion seems to be is how this story is being framed—namely within the framework of race. I could go on and present a thesis on Black female bodies as sites for socially and culturally constructed notions of identity in mainstream culture, but I already did that in undergrad except instead of "mainstream" I used the word hegemonic so dem academic heads could hear me, but I digress. Again I could go on with my rant but why reinvent the link when Lynne already has all of the really good ones posted. I especially love this interview with Marc Anthony Neal, a professor of Af-Am Studies at Duke and one of my fav writers, because he opens the discussion about this alleged Duke rape with his theory on the Black female body and how we construct notions around that body and how hiphop, class, and how most definitely being an exotic dancer affects those notions:

There's a very powerful historical discourse in this country that says, black women cannot be raped.

Even though I had hoped the response from the larger Black community would be greater, I'm at least happy to see the sisters at Duke take a stand and make their grievances known. Race, gender and class do factor into how this story is being told, no doubt and regardless of how the facts reveal themselves, clearly being able to blog and serve as our own portals of info is preventing this story from being dismissed or even perceived as another version of this.

Grrrls Gone Wild

What's up with some grrrls? Is something in the air? Is Mercury in retrograde? It seems as if there's a growing cipher of chicks who have gone coo coo for cocoa puffs or have been accused of such or should I say, their stylists and housekeepers have been accused. Dang where do I even begin, well maybe I’ll start with the most ignant-- those Flavor Flav chicks! These girls are trying to extend their 15 minutes of fame by only milleseconds from the look of this tour. Be gone will you!

And Naomi’s back to being Angry Black Model. I swear her phone has tapped more heads than this chick! LOL .. But seriously she’s got issues and wearing this t-shirt and making nice with Tyra doesn’t begin to hide that fact. Talking about shirts you can get one of your own here, but I prefer these cause we all know if she was to hit the hotnessgrrrl, getting stitches would be the least of her concerns.

Next up is Jack of J*Davey, the small band making big noise. Well she’s not so much crazy as she is annoyed but we all know there is a thin line between being someone who is committed and being committed. I don’t even know why she’s ranting in the first place everywhere I look she's getting mad love. I even gave her props and that’s after I saw her perform live against a backdrop of bad, blurred porn, which of course was blamed on the housekeeper, er.. club promoter.

And Chrissy McKinney went straight wildin’ on that security guard and on Capitol Hill no less. What's up? A grrrl can’t change her hairstyle without mad drama ensuing. All of us sisters know that Black hair can be just as political as any debate around immigration. I remember 10 years ago when I was working HR at Smith Barney and I decided I wanted to lock my hair and how I had to have a word with my director. Who does this?!? Black women that’s who! I guess in this case we could blame the stylist, but Rep. McKinney has decided to take the high road, bite the bullet and apologize.


Speaking of bullets and hair, did you hear about that woman in the Bronx whose weave caught that stray bullet? Her joint must have been unbeweavably crazy! Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

India.Arie who has since cut her locks is also talking, well singing, about hair and the remix is crazy nice.

Cocoa Girl has also taken note of grrrls who have gone wild and has pics to prove it. Check it out, keep it cool and ladies, let’s keep it tight.

For Colored Grrrls

Without even realizing it, I woke up this morning feeling like I've somehow gotten off track with my life, career, writing. Well maybe not off-track as much as meandering too much along the way. I know what I want to do but have been so damn over analytical about how to get there that I’ve lost focused almost entirely. Anyway this morning I awoke with the kind of sharpness and clarity that knocks you out of bed, onto your knees and then on to the computer where I wrote the words I am a Black Woman Journalist. What does this mean exactly? So many things. Too many to discuss now and in this space, but right now for me it means that I need to be SERIOUS about the business of writing about the beauty, complexity, simplicity and madness that generates from, envelopes throughout and blesses the lives of grrrls like me. This awakening is probably a result of a few experiences I’ve recently encountered.

The first was this absolutely dope performance by Imani Uzuri of Her Holy Water: A Black Girl’s Rock Opera on the 14th. She sang songs with lines like “I’m a diamond in the sky/ I’m a Black woman;” Had the greatest commentary in between songs like: “Carrie from Sex & The City may have rocked Manolo Blahniks but my shoes are $5.99 from Payless and guess what, my life is epic too” or my favorite: “You know all of us came from a Black woman and it seems like most of you are trying to get back up in one!” Imani said afterwards that the naming of her opera as being specifically a Black Girl’s version was the recognition on her part that she was always being classified as being a Black Girl first—before artist, before singer, before musician, so in line with that, she has embraced the identity as a form of resistance, pride and in tribute to past works like For Colored Girls, which had the same impact for Ntozake Shange.

The second revelation occurred in Harlem while at Iman’s (official) Day of Beauty event at Hue Man Bookstore. Iman, who is stunning in person, was there with the official proclamation (signed by the mayor himself) in hand. She signed copies of her book while her make-up artists gave free makeovers. So there were a gang of folks in the place and besides Iman, the other big draw was the unveiling of a mural featuring the photos of Black & Latina girls mainly from the neighborhood. Well oddly enough this mural, which was supposed to be huge, was tiny--small enough to fit on my bathroom wall. I was stunned as I had been one of the sisters that came out to be photographed that weekend before and I know that there were atleast 55 girls that day alone so I know over the course of three days the 100 or so photos I saw could not have been representational of all who came out to pose. And sure nuff, as I stood there looking at the mural I would say no less than 20 sisters walked up to the collage of photos and stared and then with utter disappointment said things like, “I wonder why I didn’t make the cut” or why was I left out and she put on” pointing to one of the many light skinned girls featured. I asked the woman in charge what happened to the supposed grandiose mural and she said that there was a snafu and this wasn’t what was originally planned but this is what they got.

After noticing that my photo too had not been one of the lucky ones selected for the muralita, I decided to hang-out and observe and what I saw surprised me. I was moved, fascinated by the responses of people. Women, and I mean grown a*s Black women were slightly pissed, but mostly so, so sad that their face was not among the images on display. I didn’t realize that these mamas I see walking down 1-2-5 had such sensitive and fragile levels of self-esteem. Many seemed to get over the disappointment though by getting a makeover. I had to ask myself how damaging was this so-called Day of Beauty becoming? Right when these sisters felt like they had fallen short of qualifying for the Beauty Mural they were enticed by free make-up and makeovers. What the hell kinda message is that sending out to the Uptown Girls that were pinpointed for this event? So you're Black and ugly, but don't fret cause make-up makes you beautiful!?

And speaking of makeover jobs, the third incident that brought me back to the middle was the brouhaha over the Vanity Fair cover featuring Beyonce where this was alleged. To me she looks just as light as she does on the cover of Essence (but that shot was a lil’ out of focus so I could be wrong). She's a fair skinned chica, whatever!

That's so not important in the larger scope of things. That scope being there hasn’t been a Black woman on a VF cover for over 10 years. Now that my friend is insane! We are sorta missing the point by just focusing on the airbrushing issue. If VF feels that we are only significant every decade or so, then eff them! Why are there no boycotts to not buy the damn mag at all? Where's our motivation to do something powerful with our dollar?

The last thing that led to my current moment of clarity was an Images of Women in Pop Culture panel sponsored by NOW held last Thursday. Jean Kilbourne’s award-winning documentary “Killing Us Softly,” was shown and it was really interesting-- despite the footage being so old, the themes were still relevant. When the panel began and the grrrls on the panel introduced themselves their seemed to be this tension mounting on the dais-- a tension that I’ve seen so many times before at events just like this. The panelists selected for these types of feminist joints are so clichéd. The white women are usually over the top liberal lesbians with something to prove and the Black women always seem annoyed, angry and tired. Just as I start packing it up to leave, this white woman runs up to the stage and takes a seat on the panel. She introduced herself and made everyone laugh and really turned the panel around. Her name was Wendy Shanker and she's the bomb. Her shtick is centered on being a fat women but she was relatable to all the women in the audience because she was insightful, witty and humorous with her commentary. It made me realize how fricking academic and staid issues around beauty and self-esteem are and have been. How we need to maybe get rid of the word feminism and replace it with fatty gal, I&I, theHotness or something else that doesn’t cling to ivory towers, but resonates in the hood with colored grrrls who like Popeye’s, their long nails painted hot pink, their hair cornrowed on an angle and who need to know they are diamonds in the sky and that they look fine without a pound of makeup on their skin.

Yes, I am a Black Woman Journalist!