Please listen for me today on NPR's News & Notes

Hello everyone,

Please check me out today on National Public Radio (NPR) for what I think will be a great episode of News and Notes. We will discuss recent developments in Barack Obama's campaign:

Here are the topics:

Ralph Nader says that Barack Obama is "talking white"

"He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician," Nader said. "He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up." (source)

Nancy Pelosi wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, Obama says 'not so fast' (source)

Barack Obama's bid for presidency creates a surge in racist activity (source)


Find local listings for NPR News & Notes here: broadcast times and call letters.

Listen to last night's The Queens' Council podcast

Shecodes, LorMarie, and femmeautonome talked about:

1) Black Women and our Personal Safety. Many black women are outraged by the escalating brazenness of criminals who target women of color, and the nonchalance of our neighbors about it.

But does this outrage mobilize us into making a comprehensive personal and family safety strategy? Has your behavior changed at all since you have begun reading about these terrible crimes? (forshadowing: I have begun research for a post on safety, including firearm ownership for black women)

Politically speaking, what should happen locally, state-wide, and nationally to curb violent crime? Does widespread black advocacy for black felons contribute to the proliferation of violent crime?


2.) The new Report on Black Women and Girls. LorMarie called in to give us her take on the press conference and the report. We will continue discussions at a later time, when most of my readers have already gotten their copy.

Listen to the podcast episode here:

Please Purchase this Report on Black Women and Girls

This past Thursday, I drove to Brooklyn, NY to attend a press conference about the first comprehensive national study on Black American women and girls.

Hosted at a black art museum, I was joined by about 50 black women of all ages and walks of life, who were just as curious about this report as I was.

From what I understand, this report synthesizes information about black women from a host of recent governmental studies, and puts it all in one place. Because I have been researching these same studies, I already knew most of the information in it -- but still, I truly appreciate this report for a few reasons:

1. This report attempts to tell the whole story about us. It is the first report ever on black women that does not define us as a meaningless bundle of pathologies tied together with a paternalistic ribbon.

2. Black women are truly the subject of the report. WE are described FIRST, and all other races and genders are compared to black women, who are the baseline. For those of us who regularly read reports, this new perspective will be a little disconcerting at first. Usually, reports compare everyone to white men, who serve as the 'gold standard' of normalcy.

I find this new perspective refreshing and critically important. Black women are just about always defined as a subset of a larger, 'more important' group: often a footnote on a Black report or bullet point on a Women's report. Not so in this report.

3. The researchers fought to present the good news as well as the bad. Apparently, many scholars are so brainwashed into thinking that all things black are pathological, that they simply can not accept the truth of positive statistics concerning black women. The authers described how they were routinely challenged when they presented statistics that didn't jibe with many scholars beliefs about black women.

Example: The researchers were challenged over and over again about the statistic that asserts that 82.6% of graduation-aged black girls finished high school in 2007.

Academics simply could not believe that black girls finished high school at those rates, and seriously challenged that number. The researcher said that she had to repeatedly return to the Dept of Education to garner more and more evidence to support that statistic.

The 82.6% number is correct.

There was a question and answer session at the end of the presentation, but I was a little disheartened by the kinds of questions that were asked by the audience. It showed me that some of the sisters who were in the audience with me really weren't getting it.

For example, the very first question was asked by an attractive 24-ish college student. She noted that the report cost $14.95 and wanted to know why the researchers were charging for the report. Shouldn't it be free? Even after the contributors explained the expenses involved, she just couldn't let it go of the fact that they were charging for it.

SISTERS: We simply MUST stop doing this! Why do so many black women expect freebies from other black women for things that they need, but gladly pay top dollar to Polo, Baby Phat, and Nike for the things that they don't? I really wanted to sternly speak to that girl after she went on and on about it, but I just had to keep whispering to myself: "This is not my house. This is not my house..."

As a favor to Shecodes, please do not email these women asking them for a 'complimentary copy' of the report. Let's support our sisters financially!

In the upcoming weeks, you will be able to talk directly to the researchers on our The Queens' Council podcast. The report is the first annual one, and it is a good start.

I mentioned that I hoped that this group will become better funded so that they can conduct their own sampling and questioning in the future, instead of needing to depend on mining long and obscure governmental reports. They hope to move in that direction in the future as well.

Please consider purchasing and downloading the report. It was commissioned by a think tank for black women entitled The Law and Policy Group... it's about 39 pages long, and can be read in one sitting.

We are going to discuss the information and arm ourselves strategically with data like this on The Queens' Council podcasts. You can purchase the report by clicking here. Tell them Shecodes sent you!

Another gang attack of a black woman while neighbors ignore screams

One year after the Dunbar Village incident has passed. No progress has been made.

Yesterday, in Philadelphia, a black woman was forced into her apartment and raped for four hours by several men. According to ABC news, quite a few neighbors said that they heard this sister's screams, but 'didn't think to call the police'. A female neighbor heard her screams and said and I quote: "I heard her screaming , 'Oh my God! Oh my goodness! Oh my God!'... Then I didn't pay attention and laid back down."

The first rapist (who forced the victim into her apartment when she tried to pass him in the hallway) was so confident that her neighbors would not do anything, that he called two of his friends to come over to join his rape party. They happily and viciously accepted the invitation.

The victim had to walk a mile to the police station herself. Does that sound familiar?

A similar incident had happened a few blocks away shortly before.

Read the whole story here.

As many of you know, the violent gang rape/torture that we call The Dunbar Village Incident was the final straw that turned many of us into black female activists. Most of us immediately recognized that heinous crime as an ominous harbinger of things to come.

I still remember the day that I heard about it -- I was in Washington DC at a Congressional Hearing entitled "From Imus to Industry", which pretended to investigate the denigrating and stereotypical imagery of (black) women in media. I was sitting next to Gina McCauley from What About our Daughters when she told me the horrific story during a brief recess.

We had just finished sitting through hours of white male media execs and black male entertainers as they piously and vigorously defending their 'right' to denigrate, demean, and lyrically rape and abuse black women. At that point, I knew that I could no longer hide in the shadows; I would have to step forward and forcefully speak up for Black women and girls.

When we review the historical background of societies that regularly mutilate and destroy women, we learn that these horrors occur over time: in an escalating progression, with obvious markers and signifiers -- and many chances to change course.

The way to mass atrocity is always paved with disregard to the pain of others and a willful disbelief of how widespread the problem is. The inroad to open and mass violence against black American women is being been paved right before our eyes... and some of the pavers are other black women.

When a black woman can actually lie down and take a nap while listening to the screams of a another black woman being gang raped, the way has been paved. We all KNOW that something is seriously askew when black women jump and shout for joy when an obvious sexual predator of black girls is found 'not guilty'.

Let's get out our tools and start tearing up this road, before it's too late.

'Status of Black Women and Girls' conference is today

Alert to New Yorkers/New Jersey-ites:

Please consider changing your plans tonight to join me and several of my readers at a press conference about Black women and girls.

The press conference will discuss a new data-based national report that presents the findings of an in depth study of black females of all ages.

Thanks to Sojourner Truth for the heads up on this event! I plan on getting very acquainted with the authors of this report in the near future. I encourage those of you who can not attend this event to obtain a copy of The State of Black Women and Girls in America.

I'll also be sure to update everyone about the content of the press conference and report at our next episode of The Queens' Council.

Here are a few details:

New York, NY; June 5, 2008--- The Law and Policy Group, Inc. will present its Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls® at a press conference on Thursday, June 26, 2008, at 6:00 p.m.

The location for the press conference and panel discussion is Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), 80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

An ongoing national report on Black women and girls is a much needed instrument for research, advocacy, and action. The Law and Policy Group, Inc. is taking on this challenge because of the great need to provide an ongoing national report, that is data-based, on the state of Black women and girls in America.

The Law and Policy Group, Inc.'s first Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls® provides a detailed overview of the state of an important, and often undervalued, demographic in America - Black females. The report is unique in
that it covers areas that affect all Black women: Health, Employment, Family
Status, Business Ownership, Education, Criminal Justice/Incarceration, Religious
Affiliation, Family Status, Political Participation, and Military Enlistment.
(read more)


Copies of the Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls® will be available at the June 26th press conference. Additionally, The Law and Policy Group, Inc.’s Founder and Executive Director, Gloria Browne-Marshall and others will be on hand to discuss the genesis and purpose of the Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls®.

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Also, if you're up early reading this blog, check out a radio show that will discuss GIRLHOOD, WOMANHOOD, and VIOLENCE, and puts the R Kelly verdict in a larger context. (Thanks to Ananda Leeke and Sojourner Truth for the heads up!)

Here are the details:

Listen to "Wake Up Call" on WBAI 99.5 FM
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008
A Full One Hour Special
(7:00 am - 8:00 am)
on

GIRLHOOD, WOMANHOOD, and VIOLENCE (a focus on sexual violence, domestic violence judicial violence, and societal violence as recently evidence in the R. Kelly verdict)

featuring

ESMERALDA SIMMONS Executive Director of the CENTER FOR LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE at Medgar Evers College/CUNY http://www.clsj.org/

and authors Brenda L. Thomas and DeShannon Bowens and YOU! (phone calls welcome). Tune in for all details!

Hosted and Produced by
journalist, activist ESTHER ARMAH

Listen Online at http://www.wbai.org/

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Finally, Black Exploitation Television (BET) is hosting their second installation of Hip Hop vs America tonight... in order to 'discuss' (but not do anything about) misogyny in Hip Hop. My nemesis, rapper David Banner, will be on the panel, as well as Michael Eric Dyson and activist Kevin Powell.

Somebody please watch this hotmess and let us know how it went!

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Looks like today is the day that Black Women will take center stage for a change!