Monday, November 11, 2013

The SILENCE of Black Women

On a daily basis some of the most degrading, misogynistic and racist images of Black women are presented in the media. But oddly in the face of all these images presenting Black women in a negative light, there has been an eerie silence from the “Strong Black Sistas” of the Black community.

The Pornographic Website Ghetto Gaggers depicts Black women being humiliated, and degraded by White men. On this site women are called Nigger by White men while being slapped in the face, forced to choke on penises and sit in their own urine. Some of the sex scenes are so violent they’re borderline rape.

But not a PEEP is heard out of Black women.

The video site World Star Hip Hop presents videos of Black women fighting in the street, fighting in fast food places, and shaking their butts on camera in twerk videos. And some videos have presented Black women having sex on camera!

But not a PEEP is heard out of Black women.

Black celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, and Rihanna behave like porn stars promoting the Jezebel stereotype as the standard for little Black girls to follow.

But not a PEEP is heard out of Black women.

Reality shows like Basketball wives, Love & Hip Hop, Teen Mom, and Real Housewives of Atlanta show Black women as loud, ignorant, foul mouthed and violent litter cable TV. Syndicated Talk shows like Maury, Jeremy Kyle, and Bill Cunningham have turned fat, loud mouthed ignorant Black women fighting over cheating spouses and baby mama drama into a niche market on television.

But not a PEEP is heard out of Black women.

Numerous YouTube Videos and music videos feature scantily clad Black women depicted as from their backsides in twerking videos.

But not a PEEP is heard from Black women.

Film producers Like Lee Daniels and Tyler Perry produce movies that present the Black woman as a victim and a joke.

But there’s not a PEEP heard out of Black women in protest. Instead, sistas have made these men millionaires at the expense of their own dignity and self-respect.

Women like Halle Berry, Mo’ Nique and Octavia Spencer are praised for choosing to star in roles that present the Black woman as a Mammy and a Jezebel, putting a TARNISH on the image of Black women.

But there’s not a PEEP out of Black women in protest. Instead, they praise these women and laud them as pillars of the community.

TV shows like Scandal feature a Black woman settling for less by being a side piece to the President of the United States.

But not a PEEP out of Black women. In fact, Sistas support this program and look forward to it. Many a Black woman clears her schedule to watch another Black woman degraded onscreen.

I find it odd I’ve heard more from Black men about the degradation of Black women in the media than I have from Black women these days. In fact I find it disturbing. Don’t Black women care about their image? Don’t they love themselves? Don’t they care about the numerous negative messages this media is presenting about women who look like them to their daughters?

Or are they comfortable being presented as a mammy and a jezebel to the world? A complete and utter laughingstock among all women.

The last time I actually heard Black women protesting about the degradation of Black women was when rapper Nelly swiped a credit card in a woman’s butt cheeks. And that was close to ten years ago.

But these days Black women are quiet as church mice as some of the most degrading, misogynistic and racist images of Black women are presented in the media.

I wonder where is the outrage from our numerous “Strong” Black female leaders? Where are those Black feminists who fight so valiantly against misogyny and the oppression of Black men when White Supremacists present them as mammies and Whores?

Seriously, Where is bell hooks? Where is Angela Davis? Where is Alice Walker? Where is Maya Angelou? Where is Oprah Winfrey? Where is Michelle Obama? Where is Queen Latifah? Where are the women of the NAACP? Where are the women of the Nation Of Islam? Where are the Black sororities like AKA? Where are the strong independent Black women who have all these high-powered high paying jobs?

To quote YouTuber David Carroll: Silent as a rat pissin’ on cotton.

I’d think all those strong independent sistas would be out in FORCE to protest their own degradation by the White Supremacist AmeriKKKan media. I think they’d be the ones speaking out about all the repackaging of the Jezebel and mammy stereotypes in all the media these days. According to these organizations, the Black woman is a leader and supposed to be a “goddess” and a “queen” that is to be respected.

But by her silence she shows she just follows the status quo.
What queen would be proud of being presented as a White Man’s Whore? How respectable does a Black woman make other Black women look when all she’s showing the world is her backside? And how much character does it show when older Black women don’t take the time to correct those younger women?

Worse, what does it say when those prominent Black women who see this degradation transpiring and they remain silent? And what does it say when Black women like Shondra Rhimes produce degrading content like Scandal?

Outside of a few bloggers like La Reyna and Sharazad Ali, I haven’t heard a thing from most Black women. For the most part it’s been Black men speaking out against all these degrading images of Black women.

Unfortunately, when these decent caring brothas and these responsible sistas make efforts to protect the image of Black womanhood, a small faction of Black women and their Mangina and Simp supporters come out to silence them. Either by flagging their videos on YouTube and having their channels deleted, or, making ad-hominem attacks against them, or by flooding the comments sections of their blogs and articles so others cannot feel comfortable express their opinions. Censorship of the worst kind.

All while the numerous masses of Black women remain silent about how their image is being maligned in the media.

To me, the silence of Black women in the face of all these negative images makes a powerful statement: That it’s okay to degrade and humiliate Black women. That Black women themselves are comfortable with the degradation of themselves and other Black women. Them saying nothing is them saying YES to their own degradation.

Black women have the power to shut down all of this misogyny and degradation of Black women in American media in an instant. As the one who controls the purse strings in the Black community, she could refuse to spend her $1.1. trillion dollars until companies started producing more positive images of African-American women in the media.

But instead she does nothing but go along to get along.

All it takes is for good Black women to say and do nothing for the White Supremacist producers of these degrading images to win. I’m urging all you good sistas out there who have remained silent to start speaking out against these misogynistic and racist depictions of Black women. Because when you’re silent you allow others to speak for you. And when you allow those people to speak for you, they take your power away.

Black woman you’re better than this! Take your dignity and self-respect back! Take control of your image and stop letting others speak for you!

26 comments:

  1. Thank you Shawn James for writing this important essay. Most Black women don't realized that they're targeted against. Think about the recent murder of Renisha McBride by a white man. This should wake Sistas up.


    S.B.

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  2. S. Baldwin, I've wanted to write this essay for years. It saddens me that Black women have been silent for over a decade while some of the most degrading images of Sistas have been presented in AmeriKKKan media. I have been hoping wishing and praying for Black women to come out and speak out about this decade of degradation but the silence is disturbing.

    To David:

    David Carroll is a brilliant man. If you had critical thinking skills you would understand he cares more about Black people than any of these paid off pimp pastors or Civil Rights leaders.

    I do not follow David Carroll, but I agree with many of his arguments. Tony Brown also makes the same points in his work over 30 years ago. When I read his book he said the exact same things. So does The Iceman. And So does Booker T. Washington. Anyone who thinks logically can understand the points of these men. As a leader of self, I use points from others to reinforce my arguments. That's what research is about. The David Carroll quote was used to describe civil Rights organizatioins, and I used it to describe Black female civil rights organizations.


    Your attempt to deflect from the argument with an ad-hominem attack on Mr. Carroll shows you didn't read the blog or the arguments presented in it, but got emotional when you saw his name.


    Anonymous, how am I homophobic? I said nothing about gays in this piece.

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  3. I got critical thinking! I also have common sense and a brain! And can think for my self! I don't let people on youtube or the internet brain wash me or think for me! David carroll don't care about black people! He is a white supremacist in black face! I read your blog and I disagree.There's nothing wrong with having stereotypes of black people in the media. The only problem is there needs to be a balance of both stereotype images and non stereotype images.

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  4. THATS WHATS WRONG WITH ALOT OF BLACK PEOPLE! WE ARE TOO JUDGEMENTAL AND KEEP BULLYING EACH OTHER FOR BEING DIFFERENT AND PASSING DOWN HATRED! THIS NEEDS TO STOP! IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU SEE ON T.V. OR THEATERS IT'S SIMPLE DON'T WATCH IT! DON'T GO SEE THE MOVIE. COMMON SENSE! BUT DON'T TRY AND BULLY OTHERS, AND MAKE THEM FEEL BAD OR GUILTY FOR DOING SO.....

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  5. To Anon,

    If you don't have anything to contribute to this website, then don't come here to start up trouble. You're just an angry white simp who comes to Black websites to start up junk.

    He's talking about the negative portrayal of Black women in the media created by those who look like you and have benefited from them because you want to maintain your false sense of superiority over Black and Brown people.

    I'm not afraid of you and anyone else who would challenge me and Shawn on this topic.

    S.B.

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  6. @ anonymous-while it would be easy to not watch those shows-it's not Shawn, who you need to worry about. You need to worry about the folks who do watch that crap and have nothing to counter it.

    What about those folks who live in areas where there is not a large black population? The only images they see are the ones on tv.

    We want to discount the impact of media but how many black males and even females are dead or in jail because of folks thinking what they saw on tv was the true image of blacks?

    If we had a balance of the images-we wouldn't be having this conversation.

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  7. To the comment above! Thats called bad parenting!.It's not t.v. & movie executive producers job to be role models. That's the parents job to be a role model to their children. It's the parents job to teach their children to decipher hollywood movies from reality. To decipher fiction make believe not real,from reality....

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  8. I'm sorry but that argument won't wash here.


    the producers need to be held accountable for the content they create.

    Over the last 13 years there has been no counter to the stream of negative images poured into the Black community. This content has had an indirect influence on the brotha and the sista on the street.

    And it is the SILENCE of the majority of Single mothers that allow more and more of this content to be produced. They see the negative impact that this FILTH is having on the Black community but not a single sista speaks out about it. In fact, many Black women participate in some of the worst behavior known to man, emulating the trash behavior presented on television, the internet and on film.

    Most of these single moms have no idea what insidious messages are in these films and reality programs. Unless it's shown to these women, they think this dysfunctional behavior is normal.

    If White people can be depicted as responsible and competent in most of their media, why can't Black people demand that standard from our content as well? Since media influences the behavior of children, we should want our kids to be humantypes, not stereotypes.

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  9. Like I said it's bad parenting! Common sense, if you don't let your children watch it, they want see it duh! Don't let your kids play with or be around certain people! That's not the producers jobs to be a second Parent to peoples kids! It's not a ipad or a iphone or any electronic device job, to babysit or take care of your kids!Don't have kids if your not going to do your job as a parent!

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  10. Great parents don't let the media influence their children thinking! Only parents with bad parenting skills!

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  11. Not all stereotypes about black people are negative. The only ones in my opinion that are negative are the ones that break the law. The ones that are criminial activities. Drug dealer,hooker etc..... If they are not breaking any laws, then it shouldn't matter. Other wise your being judgmental and no different than a racist non black person....

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  12. All those images are okay. The only problem is theres no balance....

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  13. Like I said it's the legal guardian or parents job to take care of there children! If the media have an impact on the next generation, it will because those black parents or legal guardian failed at parenting!!!!!!!!

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  14. Like you said in your lee daniels blog. That it's not the local public schools job to be a second parent, & teach black people and there children there history. It's not hollywood film producers job either, to be a second parent. And be role models to people children..

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  15. There are gay people on t.v. And movies talking about fashion. Modern family have gay couple on it. Glee have gay people on it and talk about fashion.queer eye for the straight guy gay show and fashion etc...This means war movie had asian in it working at a asian restaurant talking to reese witherspoon character. Brenda song played dumb and stupid in the suite life on disney.

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  16. Like I said theres nothing wrong with stereotype characters in hollwood. Even A-List jewish actresses natalie portman, scarlett johansson play stereotype characters, in hollywood. Like I said the only problem with black people is there need to be a balance....

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  17. Majority of black people are not in poverty. There for are not at the bottom! Theres 40million black people in america, only 12 percent is in poverty and there for are at the bottom! The other percent which is 28 million black people are not in poverty & not at the bottom......

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  18. Most people don't want to watch woodys A films. I can't hardly tell, recent box office, 2012 To rome with love movie 74million, 2013 blue jasmine 74million, 2011 midnight in paris 150million worldwide. Academy award nods for woody, best director, best screenplay, best screenplay golden globes fool. Allen is much loved he is still relevant.

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    Replies
    1. If this is how you write, I hate to see how you speak.

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  19. There just need to be a balance.

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  20. Woody Allen is irrelevant to me. After he sexed up his daughter he was dead to me. The fact that Hollywood celebrates a pedophile does not reinforce your argument. There is no balance when it comes to stereotypes. These ideas give people the wrong picture about Black people. And that hurts you when you are in the minority in a country. Not all people are the same and you can't go by what you see in a stereotype.

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  21. I'm guessing you come from a household with only either a mother or a father instead of both at the same time, you're saying arguments that only make sense after downing two or more bottles of alcohol while having a conversation to yourself.

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  22. It's amazing how much people squawk and rant/rave about things wrong with the world like sissy men and irritation at low-brow humor, but when it comes to following through with what they want to fix, they're as silent as church-mice.

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  23. Part 2: I can somewhat blame the music industry and social media because black ppl gravitate to other black ppl. Alot of black women think black men ain't shit because alot of black men talk about guns, drugs, money on social media and alot of black men think black women ain't shit because majority of half naked women on social media are black women shaking their ass. Alot of it came from black music and social media is a way to act out what they hear from the music now all these women wanna be strippers and all these men wanna be dope dealers meanwhile professional white people are making fun of us. The white men now and days are probably thinking: "welp those black women will end up on ghettogaggaers and those black men will end up in jail hip hip haray!". Meanwhile black men are still showing off guns and drugs black women are still fantasizing about stripping and prostituting and I guarantee none of them know any knowledge about ways to get different money like stock markets, real estate, CD banks, auctioning and other liget professional ways that are quick and easy to learn money sources/careers Smh. Instead our brothers and sisters are blind and it really eats up the ones that cares about what's going on in America.

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  24. Excellent piece Brotha Shawn. This is my first time reading it... though I've long shared these sentiments.

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