As a Black feminist the straight jacket of hegemonic Black masculinity matters to me and I see it as my job to support men and women who openly challenge and wrestle with it. I saw Ta-Nehisi do this in the “O” magazine article in 2006 and  in his book The Beautiful Struggle.

In The Beautiful Struggle his treatment of his relationship with his father was profoundly moving especially given the ways in which the stereotype of the “no good” Black man father is deployed on the regular in main stream media. In many ways his courage to both celebrate and critique his father has provided a framework for me to do the very same thing on my blog with my father.

I also really appreciated his candid discussion of what it felt like to be a young Black boy dealing with Black violence in the Baltimore in the 80’s. As Americans in general and as Black people specifically, I don’t believe we have a language yet to articulate and deal with the ways in which violence is a fucked up part of our every day lives and the impact this has on our relationships with each other and with ourselves.

Initially I shouted out Ta-Nehisi on my blog in 2006 because I appreciated how he wrestled with being a dad in his “O”  magazine article. In fact my precise words were,

“I only have one question for you Senor Coates. Where is the book ? Tell the publishers there is a market and if you need proof I will give them a list. Trust.”

I provide this information to give background and context for my perspective. As I believe that our experiences shape what we see and how we interpret things.

Ta-Nehisi appears to be have been critiqued around his gender politics before and the line in the sand that he draws is that his blog is his space to work out his ideas. I actually feel the same way about my blog. No one tells me what to write. However, I am regularly challenged on WHAT I write and I often respond with reading more to make my work tighter.  It makes me a stronger more nimble thinker. It happened when I called Camus a White Algerian on Racialicious, and it happened when I blogged recently about Black Male Privilege vs. Male Privilege. Experience has shown that that I will be held accountable for the things that I say.  In terms of a critique of his gender politics Ta-Nehisi states,

I have fairly often found myself confronting this critique. I have tried to cop to my blind spots, and consciously work toward abolishing them. But I do not think bad impersonations of a gender studies professor are the way forward.

This leads me to ask, does reading a book or two about racism and sexism constitute being a gender studies professor? Or simply a little bit more well rounded?

The “do for self line” stung a bit.

“I’m Out for Delphia Selfia P’s Not Helping Ya'” ~ Mobb Deep

Telling me or his audience in general  to “do for self” mask’s the power dynamics at work between him, The Atlantic and his audience.

“Get It How You Live, We Don’t Ask For Help” ~ The Clipse

Perhaps he wants to enjoy the rewards of blogging for The Atlantic, but not the responsibilities? Perhaps, from his standpoint his responsibilities appear to be to himself and his employer, to ensuring that his blog remains a safe space for him to explore what he is interested in. Touche.

In the comment section of Racialicious, Shauna helped me to clarify why I was compelled to write a post about Ta-Nehisi’s gender politics, so long after the original For Colored Girls original post was posted way back in March.

You see, two weeks ago, as I read Ta-Nehisi struggle with Malcom X’s misogyny I thought two things. First, I thought, if he was more familiar with the literature of Black feminists within the civil rights movement then Malcolm’s misogyny wouldn’t be a surprise.

Second his response to discovering Malcolm’s misogyny kind of reminded me of the moment when some White folks realize that racism exists. Like damn Gina. Word?

Today, while perusing the comments on his blog I noticed that he hasn’t read much on the gender politics in The Black Power Movement. I had already inferred this based on his reading of Malcolm.

I mean, it is well documented in Black feminist circles and in some civil rights movement circles that Stokley Carmichael said that “the only place for women in SNCC is prone” and that Eldridge Cleaver said regarding rape in his book Soul On Ice that he “started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto” and then when he considered “myself smooth enough I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey.”

Perhaps most prominently Assata Shakur, Elaine Brown, Angela Davis have all written about misogyny within the Black Power and Civil Rights Movements. In Why Misogynists Make Great Informants,  Courtney Desiree Morris writes,

Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, and Elaine Brown, each at different points in their experiences organizing with the Black Panther Party (BPP), cited sexism and the exploitation of women (and their organizing labor) in the BPP as one of their primary reasons for either leaving the group (in the cases of Brown and Shakur) or refusing to ever formally join (in Davis’s case). Although women were often expected to make significant personal sacrifices to support the movement, when women found themselves victimized by male comrades there was no support for them or channels to seek redress.

There are also sites where Black women struggle with issues of race and gender such as my blog New Model Minority,
Racialicious, Crunk Feminists, JoNubian.com and Clutch Magazine. I hope that Ta-Nehisi reconsiders his stance, Love and change are always possible.