Maybe not
unconventional re the rest of the world but re black women themselves
and the fact that they have largely limited their range within the
wider world and the broader context. Because of our experiencing hurt
and heartache at a time from the wider society, we pulled back from
it, but the times of comfort within black boarders has ended and what
we can observe now is that black men have been busy building links
and making contacts. They are now able to convert these links and
contacts and even broader goodwill for their betterment.
If a black man is not
making it it is very likely because he has set himself against the
wider society, deciding against education, delayed gratification or
choosing to go the wrong way (bling and criminality). I say this
because most black men can now rely on the liberal left to champion
him as the victim of white men and white society and thus open up
opportunities that are even denied black women. You even see white
society frame the issue of oppression in such a skewed way that it
facilitates black men's move in society and provides a stumbling
block for black women.
Speaking of framing of the issue of oppression, I went to see the film '12 years a slave.'
I had some misgivings
about seeing the film in part because we have talked about only
supporting films that are made by men who support black women. Of
course the issue of the lead actor of 12 years a slave and of
course the producer (and who knows who else in the cast), being
married interracially (and thus funnelling the money out and away
from black women) was raised about this film. However as soon as the
film was released in the UK a rash of articles appeared about it, and
one of them essentially changed my mind about not seeing it.
It was an article in
the Guardian written by a white female journalist acknowledging that
the film had opened her eyes (or made her admit) to the role played
by white women in brutalizing black women during slavery (the name of
the author of the article is Hadley Freeman and you can google her
article). Not only was this the first mainstream acknowledgement of
this dirty little secret that keeps being 'white washed', that I had
come across, she linked it to the resulting difficult relationships
that continue to exist between black and white women re feminism. And
the comment section warmed my heart even more because it became
evident that many folk had long since given short shrift to the
popular framing by feminists that white women were 'oppressed'
alongside black men and women by white men during slavery, or that
they had very little social power to do much more than watch the
brutality meted out impotently, or that if they victimized black
women, it was under instructions of the white slave master which they
had no choice but to carry out. My oh my here were folk commenting
(mostly white), that white women not only supported the system of
slavery because they were invested in the wealth it created for them
and their children, but that they participated in the brutality and
even egged on their 'masters' in their vile joys, just as the film
portrayed. For the first time the brutality of white women to their
black female slaves was thoroughly captured on screen so much so
people had begun to comment on this particular angle whereas before
it would have not have been in anyway delineated.
Wow, blow me away with
a feather!
So I duly bought my
ticket and took my seat in a packed cinema.
I wont give anything
away but I want to personally thank the director Steve McQueen for
brilliantly illustrating how harrowing the whole slavery thing was
for black women in particular. You cannot come away from that film
feeling black women had a jolly ride as a few folk have tried to
claim in recent times. You came away knowing that black women had it
worse. They got it from both ends and no one watching that film will
come away feeling how impossibly untenable the situation was for a
black female slave.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this is the message we have been trying to get across. We have been
trying to buy black women some sympathy, at least consideration if
anything. We have been trying to shine a light on the situation for
black women which has been callously overlooked or pushed to the back
ground until it has fostered this notion that black women can come
out of anything unscathed. With one film Steve McQueen has changed
the narrative of black men suffering the worse during slavery to one
where there is a dawning realization that 'Hang on, black women
experienced the middle passage, the starvation, the fields picking
cotton and as women their sexuality was readily and easily also
exploited'! Call me a fool but I am happy for black women to get some
due sympathy at some point.
And there was no 'light
skin' heroine to engage the sympathies of black and white folk
(because you know we cant feel no black woman's pain unless she is
lightskinned). Light skinned women were so for a reason in the film
(to show the link between slaves children and their masters).
God bless Steve
McQueen! He dared to show white women there alongside the slave
mastered brutalising with physical violence, with cruel denial of
food and drink, soap, heartless disregard of the heartbreak of black
mothers grieving over their lost children and maybe worse of all
selling freed black women back into slavery!
He Steve McQueen is probably the only interracially partnered black man who consistently pays his dues to black women, deliberately choosing to highlight dark black women positively (in Shame the only woman Fassbender falls in love with is a black woman, the actress Nicole Behari) or tell their pains . So yeah props to Steve.
on another note this woman is 30 but looks like a darn teenager! Black don't crack for real!
Next blog post 7th Feb
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