The author
Posted on 02/12/2017 10:08:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I don’t know that I serve my own mental health needs by putting my body on the line to feign solidarity with women who by and large didn’t have my back prior to November.
I’ve never felt any thing remotely resembling sisterhood with White women. Friendship, affinity, fondness, love—sure. Sisterhood? Nah. That sense of loyalty, interconnectedness, accountability and shared struggle simply isn’t there.
That lack of sisterhood haunted me at times during the 2016 election season. As Election Day approached and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton emerged as the frontrunner, I waited to feel something. Some sort of connection between her and me, some sort of emotion tied to the likelihood that a person who shares my gender expression would be the "leader of the free world." It never came.
However, the absence of that sisterhood never felt more real for me than it did when I learned that 53 percent of White female voters cast a ballot for a man whose bigotry was, perhaps, his greatest selling point. I never expected that White women by-and-large would favor Clinton over Donald Trump because she promised criminal justice reform or would do more to protect the rights of people of color than her opponent. But I did believe that Trump’s incredibly public misogyny—manifested in attacks on women’s looks, a boast about “pussy” grabbing and promises to prosecute people who seek abortions—would have made him less than favorable. Silly me to expect self-preservation to take priority over racism, I suppose.
Of course, much of the post-election news cycle was dominated by White folks wringing their hands: How could this happen? Why did it happen? There was lots of weeping and wailing from women who could get the answers to those questions by simply asking their relatives, friends and partners who put Trump in power. As fearful as I am for the lives that are most vulnerable in the wake of a Trump presidency (including immigrants of color, Muslims, LGBT people and, of course, Black folks), there was a tiny, tiny part of me that felt a tiny, tiny bit of satisfaction at seeing how sad many White women were. Finally, they got to know some semblance of the pain and anguish that accompanies our lives in this country.
But when I learned that some of those women had decided to channel their disappointment into a “Million Women March,” my twisted moment of pleasure quickly gave way to a familiar sense of annoyance. Once again, the labors of Black folks (in this case, the 1995 Million Man March and the 1997 Million Woman March organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam) were being co-opted and erased by clueless White ones. And just what would this “million” women be coming together to march about—their mothers, sisters, homegirls and friends who elected Trump in the first place?
The name of the march did quickly change and a group of women of color that I deeply admire signed on as co-chairs. They are now the face of the event and among its lead organizers. For me, this sparks a few conflicting feelings. On one hand, I think of Tamika Mallory (former executive director of National Action Network), Carmen Perez (executive director The Gathering for Justice), and Linda Sarsour (executive director of the Arab American Association of New York) as living and breathing superheroes. They are the closest our shared home of New York City has to Wonder Woman, Storm and Misty Knight. People who are open to hearing from them and who allow them to lead will benefit from doing so.
On the other hand, I’m really tired of Black and Brown women routinely being tasked with fixing White folks’ messes. I’m tired of being the moral compass of the United States. Many of the White women who will attend the march are committed activists, sure. But for those new-to-it White women who just decided that they care about social issues? I'm not invested in sharing space with them at this point in history.
Will the Women’s March on Washington be a space filled primarily with participants who believe that Black lives matter? I’m not sure, especially considering the attitudes of some who have publicly stated that they don’t want to hear calls for attendees to check their White privilege at the proverbial door.
Thus, I am affording myself the emotional frailty usually reserved for White women and tapping out this time. I’m not saying that I will never stand in solidarity with masses of White women under the umbrella of our gender, but it won’t be this weekend. Managing my depression is a complicated daily task, one that will certainly be exacerbated by the presidential inauguration festivities. It won’t serve my own mental health needs to put my body on the line (a body that I believe will invite more violence from Trump supporters than paler attendees) to feign solidarity with women who by and large didn’t have my back prior to November. Not yet. Eventually? Perhaps. But not now.
I’d like to see a million White women march to the grave of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth or Audre Lorde, or perhaps to the campus of Spelman College to offer a formal apology to Black women. It’s time for White women to come together and tell the world how their crimes against Black women, Black men and Black children have been no less devastating than the ones committed by their male counterparts. Perhaps the Women’s March on Washington will provide the grounds for the level of catharsis required to make that happen. If anyone can plant the seed, it’s Mallory, Perez, Sarsour and Janaye Ingram, the march’s head of logistics. But I just can’t make my way to Washington D.C. this weekend to find out.
Maybe next time.
The author
She needs psychiatric help for writing this, but then again it may land her a professorship at Berkeley.
“It’s time for White women to come together and tell the world how their crimes against Black women, Black men and Black children have been no less devastating than the ones committed by their male counterparts.”
Oh gee. Jamilah likes leftist con-artists like the former head of the National Action Network (an Al Sharpton affiliate) and Hamas supporter Linda Sarsour (the anti-Semite and terrorism supporter). She doesn’t like white liberal women who haven’t suffered “the pain” that black women have for the past 150 years. Well Jamilah hasn’t either, though she might have suffered some discrimination at some point in her life by someone (haven’t we all?).
How “white” of her to ask her white “sisters” to suffer for her, to walk in her shoes, and to pay attention to her nonsensical natterings. They have a hard enough time paying attention to their own blathering leftist, anti-male crap.
And besides, can anyone actually understand what these race-idiots are saying?
Spread the “love” baby. It sounds like you need a lot of it, and do something about that seaweed attached to your head. Hair is something to take care of, not exploit.
"Fix white people's mess"? WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT? It's been a whole LOT of blacks, especially those of her generation, who make the mess, with their extremely RACIST attitudes. And just WHAT has she EVER done for her black" sisters", who live in poverty, in terrible neighborhoods and their children?
And as someone who is all in favor of the NOI and screwy Louie, I do hope that she's waiting for "the mother ship" to take her away. /s
Such epic-level hatred and racism. It only serves to poison her soul. She needs prayers to let go of this hate.
Nobody with an IQ over 70 can be that clueless.
She was born and raised in Chicago and her POS father was an original member of THE BLACK PANTHERS. That means that her father was/is nothing buck a damned thug/criminal and should have been done away with before he had the chance to breed!
American blacks are the richest in the world. There is no country that provides as much opportunity for black people (including countries that are black run). She’s like a spoiled child, who keeps whining for more even though she has it better than 99.9% of everyone else. Does anyone doubt that she’s had a very privileged life here under predominantly white rule?
“I’m tired of being the moral compass of the United States.”
Now there’s a woman with a self-esteem problem.
She has far more than sanity would allow.
I can’t help but feel happy that the “people of color” on the left will drop their naive, foolish, spaced-out white leftist comrades as soon as they get the upper hand, as they have already done many times on the local level. The white Cultural Marxists thought they could use minority groups to replace the proletariat that would not revolt like Marx expected them to. They’ve always thought they were using these identity groups to overthrow capitalism and Western Civ, but the tides have already shifted. Soon they won’t be the ones in control any more of the dangerous game they started. It could hardly happen to a more deserving group of people.
White liberals are the “useful idiots” that the Communists talk about.
How about you walk up to ME, and apologize for seeing a racist in every white person you see?
No?
Tell you what, if you don’t get past your “victim” attitude. you will not experience the joy of a life well lived.
Nobody alive today has ever had slaves, does not owe ypu a damned thing, nor will they bow down to you.
We owe you NOTHING.
There’s more of the word “I” in your article than an Obama speech, for crying out loud.
You can’t see any further than the end of your own nose.
That is not anything that is going to empower you, but will hold you back from even the simplest joy.
Do you really expect anyone to try to reach out to you with YOUR racist attitude?
That’s right YOUR racist attitude.
Get past it, leave it IN the past where it belongs.
Seems to me that you are so busy pointing fingers that you don’t know how to live without your crappy attitude.
You LIKE wearing the mantle of your supposed oppression.
Like the lines from an old Eagle song:
“So often times it happens’,
that we live our lives in chains.
and we never even know we have the key.”
Honesty is a good thing. Her first sentence could be written by anyone, when talking about someone from another racial background.
It’s kinda like watching a fight (boxing/MMA) where your first
wish is to see someone who looks like you, beat up someone who is different.
Later, you have to find the humanity that is deeper inside you, which can help you see the bigger picture. But, that
takes time and effort, and more honesty.
This idiot is the daughter of an original BLACK PANTHER, who, from what she has written, either knocked up her mother and left, or was married to her breed sow and walked out on her. She says that she spent one weekend with him, when she was 16 and that was it.
She got preggers out of wedlock, her "ex" is now married, has an intact nuclear family, and they share custody of their daughter...BUT...she hates him and is upset that her child can see what an intact family is like and just might think that that is better than living with a single mother.
This moron HATES and looks down her nose at EVERYONE else and obviously has NEVER had a "happy day" in her life and is not ever likely to.
True. I was talking to a French black girl and she could not believe that her cousin in the US did not have to go through a background check and proof of citizenship to buy a house.
Hi!
Good to see you!
Her life has been a sad story, for sure.
But her hatred is going to consume her someday.
Okay, so her own parents' bad life choices aren't her fault, but obviously she never did learn from their bad examples.
“Nothing buck”
Lol
Nice slip there.....me likey
I'm a bit distracted, it's snowing again and we were snowed in for a day & 1/2 ( got 19 inches on Thursday-Friday morn ) and I'm worrying about not being able to get out again.
“Why I’m Skipping The Women’s March on Washington”
Same reason she skipped participating in the election ?
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