Keywords : Power ,Pride, Skin , Differences
The Combahee River Collective Statement
This story talks about a collective of Black Feminists that have been meeting since 1974.They talked more about four things which were the genesis of contemporary black feminism, what’s believed i.e, the specific province of our politics, the problems in organizing Black Feminists, including history of our collective and the issues they had plus practice. ” 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 may because of our need as human persons for autonomy.” (In The Combahee River Collective Statement ) This quote definitely goes with the topic of this reading .
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The book was about why its so tough for people to be able to talk about race and why it needs to be talked about. Oluo talked a lot about how Black Women are treated , looked at and how her life goes daily . A lot of things said were things every black girl has to go through. She tried to ignore it but it always seemed to come back around in her life. ” the realities if race haven’t always been welcome in my life but they have always been there.”(1:23).
Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining
This story talks about how much of Western European history conditions us to see human differences in simplistic opposition to each other. They discussed how it wasn’t just race that was a problem things such as age and etc.. ” We find ourselves having to repeat and relearn the same old
lessons over and over that our mothers did because we do not pass on what we have learned, or because we are unable to listen. For instance, how many times has this all been said before? For another, who would have believed that once again our daughters are allowing their bodies to be hampered and purgatoried by girdles and high heels and hobble skirts?”(pg:117) This is definitely something I agree with and have heard recently as well. Opposed groups are often left to teach their opposers.” The literatures of all women of Color recreate the textures of
our lives, and many white women are heavily invested in ignoring the real differences.”
Connections
The connections the text’s of the week were that they all talked about the differences Black Women had to go through. Oluo’s topic was race but later went more into life as a black women. The Combahee River Collective statement talked about the specific provinces if our politics and the issues of black feminist. Lorde and Oluo really tied in for the same topic to me. They all were on the same page when it came to Black Feminism.
Nina Simone – Four Women (1966)
“Four women ” by Nina Simone connects to all text we read for the week. Nina talked about the color of her skin , her name and how her father pushed up on her mother. She described the difference when it came to the women one was called ” Sweet Thang” and another was” Peaches”.
QUESTIONS :
- Which song did you enjoy listening to most ?
- What are some of the issues that black women are facing today that they didn’t address ?
I really enjoyed the Tupac song. I think one issue that black women go through that the topics we read kind of touched on was being a black woman in a workplace such as an office job. From what I’ve seen my mom go through, people (white men and women) who are of higher power in that work field treat people of color very differently. Meaning speaking to them in an unprofessional manner, giving them a lot more workload than what they are paid to do and what is within their job descriptions, disregarding ideas that can make the company succeed. I feel like minorities working in office jobs is something that doesn’t get talked about a lot.
Hey! i really enjoyed the Tupac Song as well. For one I’m a huge fan. This song speak volume. Its a song that you can go to when you are down and out!
I loved all of the songs from this week’s assignment. They all have an important and great message behind each them. The song by Solange stood out to me the most, though, as it closely connected with many of the readings from this week. It helped me understand more about the texts and the struggles people of color face that white people don’t deal with.
Some issues that black women are facing today that wasn’t addressed is how black men are playing a role in oppressing black women. Many black men including a man named Kevin Samuels, may he rest in peace, dished out harmful advice to black women to “uplift” the black man. As a black woman myself, I find this to be very bitter, and shows how deep our trauma as Black people go. Many black men display the same supremacist behaviors that we are fighting so hard to get rid of. Black women and women, in general, deserve better!
Oh, I like the Tupac song. I was shocked to see someone choose a Tupac song for this week’s assignment. I enjoyed reading everyone’s blog posts for this week assignment’s and picking out the pieces that match this week’s songs.
Hey Tsdaniels1,
This is George Ward. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. The song I enjoyed listening to was Nina Simone Four Women. Her voice and her words in her song are not only powerful but they are telling.
I really enjoyed both Nina Simone’s “Four Women” as well as Solange’s “Don’t Touch My Hair”. They both have powerful voices with unique inflection that gives their songs an emotional quality, making me really feel the meaning of both songs while I was listening.