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Black Girls and Sexual Violence; A Response to @DopegirlFresh

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Image from Rihanna’s Man Down video.

One of the reasons why I write about my experiences with street harassment, and the gendered and raced aspects of violence and the threat of violence, is to create a space to talk about how Black women historically and currently have to fight for the right to not be touched without consent by strangers AND people they know.

I often tell Black men, I don’t want you touching US without our consent and I don’t want the police touching YOU without your consent.

In simultaneously theorizing power, gender and race, most of the times- they get it. Other times they look at me like I am batshit.

@Dopegirlfresh has a post up at Feministe (follow her here) about how her eleven year old play niece *Brianna experienced sexual harassment and the threat of sexual violence, defended herself, YET, the police was called on the play niece.

It is powerful because @dopegirlfresh demonstrates the psychic violence that occurs when children are not protected from being assaulted by OTHER children or adults, it demonstrates how adults can be complicit in children being dominated, it demonstrates how Black bodies can get entangled in a criminal justice system when they have been in fact victimized and are in need of assistance. «<My inner lawyer just came out.

Dopegirlfresh writes,

To realize that Brianna had already internalized the idea that she was not worthy of protection (even by her own means) was absolutely heartbreaking for me. Already? She already knows nobody will give enough of a fuck? I felt betrayed. I felt all of the rage from my own experiences with street harassment and groping. I identify all forms of unwanted touching, especially in what I call the bathing suit areas, as sexual assault. And sometimes I forget that not everyone does. But, whether you think of these actions in a particular way or not, I have to ask: WHAT THE FUCK? Why make the child responsible when they’ve come to the clear realization that adult intervention is needed? Isn’t that your job as a fucking camp counselor or group leader or whatever title you’ve got?

At which point do we realize as little Black girls that other people will not give a fuck?

What happens to our sense of self when that happens?

How do we cope? What impact does that have on our sense of OUR sexualities?

*Name was changed to protect her identity.

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On the History of the Word “Feminist” and How It is Used.

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For comps, I read Clarie Moses’s “What’s In a Name?” On Writing the History of Feminism” this weekend.

What is fascinating is that she discusses the history of the word feminism, what exactly do we mean when we use the term feminism to describe women’s organizing activities and is it legitimate to call someone a feminist if they didn’t describe themselves as such? #hmmp!

Think about it this way. Do you call someone Black who doesn’t describe themselves as Black? #Ummhmm.

There seems to be three criteria for women’s organizing to be labeled feminist:

  • A collective focused on advancing women’s cause
  • Organizing separate from men
  • Challenge families/religious ideals of what “women” should be, her proper place.

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She states the the term has French origins circa 1880, and it comes from two words Femme, which means woman and ism which is a political identity. Who knew? That’s kind of awesome.

She also asks is it legitimate to label someone a feminist if the term wasn’t being used yet in a particular space. For instance can we call the women getting together to act for the betterment of women in say the 1700’s, even if they did not call themselves feminist. Good question, no?

I have heard MANY a Black woman say “I am not a feminist, thats for White women” and I understand because popular culture representations of feminism would have someone think that feminism was only for “middle classed White women.”

But, Black women- Black club women, since reconstruction so we are talking the early 1900’s on have been organizing. They have been getting together to build schools and churches, protesting the racially and sexually violent treatment of Black women- in short rape, they protested the lynching of African American men- a violent act of power intended to keep African American’s in their place- don’t get uppity.

Feminism is also defined differently based on you is using it. For some it means, “defending the cause of women”, “believing in the moral and spiritual equality of the sexes” or “believing in the intellectual equality” of the sexes.

There has also been work written that states that Native American Iroquois women influenced early White women feminist and the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Reading this I thought, why has the term feminist persisted over time?

Why is it such a hot button term that triggers a knee jerk reaction where folks feel the need to either embrace it or disavow themselves from it?

Over the years, Moses contends that there have been several kinds of feminist. “Liberal Feminists”, “Socialist Feminists”, “Black Feminists”, “Jewish Feminists”, “multicultural feminists”, “Christian Feminists” and I would add to that “Hip Hop Feminists.”

Moses concludes that the gains for women during the period where “feminism” was so broadly defined were enormous. The gains for women were substantial, however some women gained more than others and this happened across racial lines.

  • Women obtained access to credit  and their right to control property and their job earnings
  • Laws were passed guaranteeing women equal access to higher education

It appears that women made the most striking gains, when the term was used broadly, giving it multiple meanings.

Words are powerful. They help us feel connected to something greater.

What do you think of Femme + Ism?

The Iroquois influenced the Founding Fathers? Word?

You learn something? What? I did.

Walgreens is Going to Sell #WhiteGroceries?- Race, Food and the City

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I just came from the local co-op where a half gallon of organic milk was nearly $5.00 and the cereal, much of which looked like granola and berries was $5.00 as well. I like granola in yogurt. I DO NOT like granola as cereal. I had a $5-6 budget for cereal and milk this morning. I walked out and went to the local bodega which of course has a $8 debit card minimum.  She let me slide with $6.50. I should have went to Target yesterday.

All of this brings me to news around food deserts and #whitegroceries. According to Jorge Rivas at Colorlines, because of Michelle Obama’s advocacy around food, health and nutrician Walgreens and Walmart amongst other retailers are going to start to sell fruits and vegetables. Rivas writes,

Last week, Michelle Obama joined a group of large retail chains in announcing a plan to provide access to healthy, affordable food to millions of people in what have come to be known as the country’s food deserts. The retailers plan to open or expand over 1,500 stores over the next five years in rural and urban neighborhoods. The first lady’s high-profile endorsement, as part of her anti-obesity campaign, is the latest in her work with large chains, including controversial companies such as Wal-Mart, which has been greeted with both praise and criticism.

He goes on to say,

A 2010 report published by PolicyLink and The Food Trust found African Americans were nearly four times as likely to live in a food desert as whites.

The largest partnership announced was with Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain operating 7,773 stores nationwide—45 percent of those are in “underrepresented” communities, the White House said. Walgreens has committed to converting at least 1,000 stores into “food oasis” stores.

You know I Love to eat. I have a green thumb. My favorite room in a house is the kitchen.

I also know that having access to jobs, food and safe and affordable housing is a social justice issue and an issue of economic power.

I have three issues here.

First I would like to say that I am glad that this conversation is happening. However it seems to be lacking vision.

The three issues that are not being address are pleasure, marginalized low income earning bodies, jobs and seeing a corporate model as the only model.

I also know that folks who do work around health with marginalized bodies do NOT take into account how pleasure and education factors into the equation.

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Isn’t it more pleasurable, and albeit worse for your body to grab that Coke and some Doritos?

The second issue is jobs. Why is the main vehicle for addressing obesity only utilizing multinational corporations who could care less about whether or not children of any race get obese or whether or not they work.

Being poor is expensive. Having a minimum wage job is expensive.

Corporations are bound to their shareholders not to chubby children.

Where is the effort to build  national network of year around, indoor outdoor farmers markets with youth led cooking classes.

I remember going to Housewives in downtown Oakland with my grandmother and momma. It was the closest thing to a indoor farmers market I have ever seen.

Young people would be paid to teach OTHER young people how to grow, buy, prepare, food.

Farmers markets could make a direct connection to the people who make their food.

Why the dependency on Walgreens?

Is having banana’s at Walgreens really going to make a big difference to a low income rural White teenager or a low income Black teenager in the city?

The City is Like Chitlins: Notes on Gentrification in Washington, DC.

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Peace to Janel for staying on me to write about class. Peace to Latoya Peterson for reminding me to think about how cities are similar, different and the reasons why DC, with it’s 25 miles,  is special to me.

I once said that the city was like chitlin’s. Moving from the deep South to DC, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Ohio, New York, and Philadelphia during the great migration Black folks had to figure out how to make something horrible into something livable, or in the case of Chitlins- edible.

For many, chitlin’s, like the city is a delicacy now for some.

After WWII, there was huge resistance to African Americans living in decent housing in the city.

In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. went to Chicago to protest the housing conditions of African Americans. The Eyes on the Prize Documentary speaks captures some of this time period.

Shoot, African Americans were not allowed to live in East Oakland before the 1950’s.

My homie, Janel, has consistently stated that conversations about gentrification fail to take into consideration that brown bodies, regardless of the employment status reduce the property value. (*noted: Janel please correct me if my reading is off.)

At first, I disagreed with her hard. However, I am now coming to believe that there is some merit to her argument.

For example, if I am a professor, and Goldy is an lobbyist and we move into a condo on a mixed race but largely white street with owner occupied houses in Columbia Heights, with combined wages of approximately- lets say, $150k, the fact that we are high income earners does not mitigate the fact that we are both brown bodies.

At $150K this would put us in the upper middle class or the rich, depending on whose theory you use.

I had always thought that our social class power and education would make our race moot, when living in middle class and affluent neighborhoods.

Our brown bodies are read as reducing the neighborhood property values of our White affluent neighbors.

According to Janel, our neighbors property values would be reduced because we are “brown bodies.” I hope that she writes more about this in the future. #nudge.

Which brings me to the somewhat unique situation of Washington, DC.

Having lived in Oakland, Brooklyn and DC, I have seen patterns of similarities and differences in terms of how the city is changing demographically.

Because of the government and higher educational institutions, DC is a transient space. As people come here and leave for work for short periods, year around. A friend of mind, Mr. Miami, would routinely rent out an his extra room in his row house, for a handsome sum, for short two or three month periods twice a year in order boost his vacation savings.

Also, the district and the federal government employs a substantial number of African Americans. In fact, Prince Georges county is the seat of African American high income earners in the country.

There is a reason why Black folks, young and old joke about a “good gubmet job.”

I never really knew how Black DC government was until I went to get finger printed for a teaching job last summer. Nearly all of the employees were Black. In fact the woman, an African American woman, with a big old gun- was telling me about how much overtime she worked last week so she could take time off to be with her daughter for a summer camp performance.

The purpose of this post isn’t to go to be a five volume series on the differences of gentrification and global capitalism in three US cities, but what I am interested in is “Who Has A Right to the City?”

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What’s interesting to me about DC is the juxtaposition of Black owner occupied houses and condo’s especially near Georgia Petworth and the lack of political will to ensure that Black home owners can remain in the city.

Wouldn’t it logically follow that Black politicians in the district have a vested interest in insuring that these residents, their base, remain here, if they want to be re-elected? I am not saying that Black people automatically vote for other Black folks, some do some don’t. I am asking where is the conversation? What explains the lack of political will?

What I am saying is that the lack of a vision and a willingness to address the strong possibility that African Americans will be taxed out of their homes needs to be interrogated.

Lot’s of conversations about gentrification are ahistorical. That is because most journalist are not historians.

Think about it this way. When I was in undergrad at the New School, right up on 14th and 1st  was Stuyvesant Town.

Stuyvesant Town has 8,757 apartments in 35 residential buildings stretching from 1st to Avenue C between 14th and 23rd street. African Americans were barred from Stuyvesant Town, for the record.

As a student I was unaware of what kind of housing it was. They looked like nice projects to me.

As I got older, I learned that Stuyvesant Town was built by New York City and Metropolitan life to house WWII veterans and their families after the war.

The apartments were rented at below market rates.

This is a massive complex.

I remember reading in the paper while living in NYC in 2005, at the height of the real estate bubble that Stuyvestant town was for sale. In 2006, MetLife agreed to sell Stuyvesant Town—Peter Cooper Village to Tishman Speyer Properties and the real estate arm of BlackRock for $5.4 billion.

Because of financing issues and lawsuits Stuyvesant town ended up with creditors.

Today, Stuyvesant town is luxury apartments.

I have questions. Many questions.

Why did New York City have the political will to build Stuyvesant Town?

Given that fact that enslaved African American’s have been property historically, what does it mean that they may be taxed out of there homes in DC? Who will move in?

Should there be political will in DC to ensure that African American home owners can remain in their homes? Why? Why not?

Should people be able to afford to live in the neighborhoods where they grew up? Where they spent their 20’s?

Have African Americans earned a right to the city? If not, who does?

Are the only people who have a right to the city the ones who can afford to pay the financial price?

Race, Class and Prostitution in the City: Washington DC’s Black Madam- Odessa Madre

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For @AlaiaWilliams for continuing to remind me to write this. Readers are a precious commodity.

In the essay “Working for Nothing but a Living” Dr. Sharon Harley describes the life of  Odessa Madre, a dark skinned Black woman who became a Madam in the 1940’s because as a high school graduate, who as dark skinned and described as “not attractive, but smart” by her peers, being a madam was one of the major options available for her to make decent money in Washington, DC in the 1940’s.

Born in 1907 her mother was a seamstress and her dad and uncle operated a Madre Brothers barber shop and a pool hall.

During the 1940’s Madre was estimated to have had controlled six prostitution houses, employed twenty women and garnered a net annual income of $100,000.

What is fascinating about this essay is that Harley shows how even though Madre was born in a working middle class family, and that she went to Dunbar, and when she graduated from high school her parents gave her a car, Madre felt that the main job open for African American women- being a teacher was not an option for her. So she chose to become a madam instead. To be clear, Madre was not a member of the Washington, DC elite. However Harley theorizes that Madre’s skin color and looks would have prevented her from joining if she desired.

Color, race, class and the politics of the city are all at work here.

Harley describes Madre saying,

Odessa Madre was a prominent figure in mid twentieth century black Washington, D.C., underground economy. As a graduate of Washington’s elite Dunbar Senior High School, she could have found employment in the legal labor economy or lived comfortably due to her parents financial success….For good reason she recognized that the few professional and clerical jobs available to educated black women  were more likley to be filled by  light skinned, so called attractive women or to have a predominance of such women.

Skin color and earning power is central to my research. Recently I have been looking at the erotic capital of strippers. By erotic capital I mean the ways in which skin color and body size translates into higher earning power for women.  I am really interested in the erotic capital of video vixens and waitresses.

While erotic capital isn’t at work with the Madre’s own personal narrative. Harley does touch on it she writes about Ceclia Scott, a black businesswoman who operated a bar on U street next to the Howard theater. According to Scott,

 Attractive light skinned young women…were good for business because her patrons who spent freely on liquor and tipped handsomely, preferred such women. Indeed some of her friends approached her about hiring their daughters because as she stated she “paid a decent wage and because of the type of clientele we attracted- doctors and big time hustlers who paid large tips. Besides they knew we would take care of their daughters.

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The line between legitimate and illegitimate business practices is being blurred here as well. Harley writes,

It is a story of how certain resourceful, ambitious, and courage Black women with limited legal economic opportunities resorted to criminal activities to earn a living for themselves and support kin and Black institutions- goals which they shared with their law-abiding neighborhoods and family members.

Another aspect of this narrative that I found interesting is how race relations between Madre and her young white male peers played a role in he ability work as a madam.

Madre was raised in neighborhood off  of Georgia Ave which was mixed with Irish folks on one side of the street and African Americans on the other.  The young Irish boys who were Madre’s playmates as a little girl went on to become members of the Metro Police Department, and they “proved invaluable to Madre’s eventual rise to the top of the underground hierarchy.”

Madre died penniless in 1983, having been in and out of jail for drug dealing and possession. African American’s in DC, remembering how Madre had historically shared with low income and impoverished families and children in DC- collected the money to bury her.

Did you know of Madre?

What do you think of the idea of a woman madam? Does it seem more insidious than a man who is a pimp?

Skin color limiting employment options? What do you think? Have your Aunts or Grandmother’s ever talked about how their skin tone shaped their job options?

She needs a documentary, doesn’t she?