Originally posted April 2019
Red and white checkered table cloth covers the kitchen table. In front of me sits a bowl of oatmeal with sugar, butter and a dash of cold milk to cool off the hot meal. My grandmother set this table for me….
For all the women I’m close to–my nieces, sisters, aunties and cousins. For my mother, Moochie, and my home girl, Shay, this is a (““RRR-ting!”) Real recognize real. For all my sisters of various hues, those unapologetic (black) women, thank you for setting this table of life for us so that we may remember and eat our fill.
Those of you who do not know, allow me to hip you to some of the atrocities that your ancestors endured. Black women were valued more than Black men as slaves. The women could not only till the fields, cook, clean, and watch the slave owners’ children. They also were the objects used to sate the lust of the slavers. The victims of multiple rapes and molestations, they learned to endure unselfishly so that we, their children, could one day be free. While we black men hung our heads in shame and anger, the black women held theirs high with pride while enduring the degrading so that they could protect their loved ones. There is no shame in being the victim… for submitting flesh for the lives of millions. God bless your souls and I say thank you.
What of the black women living through the Jim Crow Era? They too faced fire hoses, police brutality, and being jailed. These black women who demonstrated equal courage also faced worse consequences. Hush!!!! No one is supposed to know these things. It wasn’t just the rapes and molestations, these real scenarios are what helped define the strength and resilience of black women.
What about the extra jobs that black women worked because the black men were displaced, due to minimum wage? Then poverty set in and welfare was birthed. She, then bent, pushing the man out of the home so that she could provide for her children. Who would’ve known that in order for us to have freedom we had to become slaves (dependent on the state) again? But this is no fault of the unapologetic black woman. She fed her family, right? While losing our pride and identity as men, we developed characters to better fit the streets, projects, slums, and ghettoes. We worshipped a new god believing that we were providing for our families when we were actually destroying what dignity remained. Yet the black woman remained true again, becoming victims to debasement. For the love of the Black man, she fell in love with heroin and crack. Why should you be sorry, sisters, when your acts were crimes of passion? I understand what happened but do you?
These are the same black women who always stood in the gap for their children, for their husbands. Who endured debasement, defilement and atrocities for the future of their children. These same gorgeous souls who we now spit upon have become bitches and hoes to the extent that these titles are just accepted, they’re self- imposed. The outrage, the cry for black women’s rights, have been guided again by the system to further separate our love and growth as a people.
There is no Black Feminism; there are no reparations that can equal to their pain and suffering. There is no justifiable way to quantify, to sum up, the worth of (black) women. They encompass black power, black pride, and black hope! Rights! No one can give (black) women anything less then what they are willing to accept. What is your worth (black) woman? From Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Tony Morrison, Maya Angelou. To Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, RiShhe’ Cole and Banks, women starting with you Moochie; you give (black) America hope. You motivate nations, birthing the greatest of greats. The anonymous black woman greeting you at Walgreens, to those sensual sisters who are working the pole, we are not judging; you fight your own fights. But do you know how much you’re really worth? As Maya Angelou asked, “….do you know who you are, who you really are?”
Fight for the rights you deserve, but I say you deserve more. While you fight proving that (black) women are more than just women, that you are equal to men, don’t allow this crooked system to misdirect your fight. Do not allow them to undercut your goals. To be honest, there is no unapologetic (black) women equal to men…. You are worth more than us in many ways. It was a woman who God placed his seed in, it was a woman who birthed the Honorable Prophet Mohammed. You (Black) women deserve respect, love, hope and happiness, so remain unapologetic (Black) Women.
