I could scarcely contain my rage when I visited our sister-blog, What About Our Daughters? and saw this hideous depiction of Michelle Obama -- not by the Tennessee GOP this time, but by the liberal Daily Kos.
So many things flashed before my eyes -- I remember my comments section several months ago, when black men and women alike asked me 'What's the big deal?' when I went apoplectic about O'Reilly's lynching statement referring to Michelle Obama -- and when people thought I was too harsh when I condemned Barack Obama for his silence concerning it.
Even up until yesterday, I had sisters telling me to calm down about attacks against Michelle Obama, with the reasoning that she is 'fair game'. Do you all realize that 'fair game' is a HUNTING terminology? And that the term 'game' refers to ANIMALS? Please find another reference to explain your thoughts in your emails to me moving forward.
What will it take for black women to understand that there is a serious racio-misogyny problem in this country, fueled by racist and sexist imagery? Are we to never be defended from these visual and verbal assaults?
What would have happened if Bill O'Reilly suffered real consequences concerning his 'lynching' statements concerning Barack Obama's wife? What if he was stopped in his tracks?
What makes some white people think that 'humorous' lynching references are acceptable? Would they applaud imagery of Joe Leiberman's wife being tortured and cooked alive in a Nazi oven in response to a slip of the tongue she may have made? Would they accept a picture of Laura Bush hanging from a gallows?
When liberals can actually believe that they are HELPING Michelle Obama by portraying her in this hideous and evil way, we are headed for a profound racial crisis in America. Make no mistake -- there are plenty of people in the Democratic party who are every whit as dense and racially clueless as black folk accuse the Republicans of being.
Many of our white friends do not have a clue about the profound, unspeakable horror and pain that images like this causes in the hearts of black people. They don't know because they self-segregate themselves and assume they know everything about us already.
When I think of the post-traumatic stress that still haunts minds of our parents and grandparents who have actually SEEN similar, real-life images of their relatives' lynched bodies -- FIRST HAND... and had to take down and bury their charred bodies, I have to kneel and pray and ask Jesus to keep myself from plotting to do harm to people who make images like this.
To certain people, this picture is cute, 'edgy', and 'ironic'. They are 'defending' the middle class by 'pointing out' racism. Underneath it all, as usual, the black woman's degradation is simply a tool to be exploited to further their own agendas.
I ASK GERALDINE FERRARO: Is this what you meant when you said that it was easier for Obama ('black') than Clinton('woman') in the media? Where is Chelsea's lynching picture? Have you asked Hillary Clinton what she has done to end the degradation, subjugation and humiliation of black women?
My greatest fear is that when the racial fire gets so hot that it begins to burn, our warriors will lose courage and run for cover. If we do not organize now, if we do not gather our resources NOW, if we do not establish our power NOW, we will not be equipped to deal with in-your-face racist images that are not delivered under the guise of 'irony'.
Black women: do we really GET that we must strike our own political blows? What will it take? Actual lynchings of black women? I hate to tell you this, but it's already happening. There are several torture cases of black women, worse than the Dunbar Village incident that I am aware of.
I was not kidding when I said that we must form our own Anti-Defamation League, and our own Political Action Committee -- NOW. Talk to your sisters. It's time to go to war.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
This is why Black women must politically organize!
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46 comments:
I was really struck how sexualized the image of her is. It has a sort of erotic vibe.. she's wearing a skin-tight dress! I have seen depictions of black men being lynched, but it isn't porntastic like that...
I agree with tayari. There is so much symbolism involved that I had to look away from the computer screen for a minute.
Even the fact that the dress is red and strapless screams 'jezebel', 'sexually loose' in Christian conservative circles.
This is my last straw. If the Democratic party doesn't condemn this picture, I am going Green.
wow.
For once, I really am speechless.
To everyone: Please note that the individual responsible for this is completely unrepentant. The writer said the following about the Michelle Obama image in the comment section of the new & "improved" post:
"I still think it was entirely appropriate, historically accurate and politically relevant . . . I still don't get what all the uproar was about mainly because only one person bothered to really articulate their feelings."
All of these racists will start "getting what the uproar is about" when we impose a heavy price for their actions. We need the Black Women's Anti-Defamation League right now. Where do I sign up?
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
Sometimes things have to deteriorate enough for people to stop making excuses and get motivated to take action!
SheCodes,
I just posted on this as well...
I'm really over white people...
Omg..Are you serious..
I am so offended by that image on so many levels.
White privilege and white arrogance. That is what this demeaning photo comes down to. Not only is meant to instill fear, in the hearts of blacks it also boosts white power in the guise of helping. Sick and twisted is what this is.
DO NOT BLAME ALL WHITE PEOPLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF THIS FOOL. THERE ARE BLACK MEN WHO WOULD GLADY PROMOTE A SIMILAR IMAGE OF MICHELLE ONLY THEY WOULD HAVE A CREDIT CARD OR MONEY ON THE COVER RATHER THAN THE WHITE SHEET!
This is awful and horrible but I am not surprised at all. I've heard the nasty comments and horrible treatment of Hillary. I don't think it's time to compare but clearly sexism...across the board is a problem.
The media has made hypersexualized black females AKA, tip drill ok. Black women have been hoes for so long many have grown used to negative images of black women.
Since we were treated so terribly by our own, others feel comfortable promoting these kinds of images.
Politics is ugly and I'm just not surprised by this. If Hillary doesn't get much respect I don't think any woman is going to get much respect these days!
sadtimeinUS,
You have made good points. I definitely do not blame 'all white people' for this image, and I agree wholeheartedly that many black men would create images that are similar in denigration, and have made it a favorite pastime to lambaste them too.
Furthermore, we don't even have consensus among black women that images like this are destructive and uncalled for.
None of that mitigates the alarming cluelessness that many white people have about black women. It's as if they don't believe that we are emotionally capable of the same level of humiliation, we do not feel the same pain for our daughters, the same fear and horror for our own safety.
When I see a sexualized picture of Hillary Clinton with her clothes being ripped off, with her bare back about to be burned with a white hot iron, with her bound by the wrists, being called 'uppity', while masked men look on -- BY HER OWN SUPPORTERS... then we will be able to talk about 'across the board sexism'.
Moreover, when Hillary Clinton renounces her relationship with Bob Johnson, who created the GREATEST PURVEYOR of sexist, defamatory images of black women around the world -- the very man who EMPOWERED the black men that you referred to and made them millionaires... when she kicks him out of her inner circle - then and only then will I step up in female solidarity with her. She is the original sellout to black women and her relationship to him is why I left her camp.
The one way street is over.
I will also add that Barack Obama is skating on thin ice concerning this matter with me too.
Michelle Obama is a class act. Her beauty, strength and intelligence are inspiring. She does not deserve to be attacked in such a disgustingly misogynistic, viciously demeaning and heinously racist manner. The Daily Chaos (opps, I meant Kos) should burn for this one.
I can't even believe someone had the unmitigated gall to put this in print but it just goes to show how far we have NOT come as far as being treated as equals in this country. I'm going to have to have a 'come to Jesus' meeting with my damn self to keep from slapping the first White heffa I see!!
Although I can see where you are coming from, I don't see any benefits to Black women to break off from Black men. We live with them and marry them and have children with them. Have White women separated themselves from White men? Asian women? Doesn't make sense.
There is a lot more there than a simple...snuff photo, although that is an important part of the imagery. (Quite frankly it shows evidence of a fairly sophisticated understanding of earlier forms of American racism--I am thinking of anti-Japanese visual rhetoric of WWII, which, in turn, drew on older racist imagery.)
I know that there is a picture of violence against black women there, but, but let's not let the ultimate message get away from us.
Now, I am going to float this one out there. By this logic, it seems to me, that you could condemn Emmit Till's mother for putting images of her son on public display. Discuss. I'm going to jump in a bunker.
And yes, black women should organize.
HJ
Anonymous, I think that you might misunderstand our goals here. Nowhere on this blog to I encourage or discourage black women to have relationships with black men.
To form organizations and alliances to defend black women is not the same thing as 'walking away from black men'.
If anything I have walked away from black ORGANIZATIONS that throw black women under the bus in order to excuse and defend the dangerous and predatory behavior of that minority of criminal black men.
However, if sisters want to stay involved in those organizations as well, they would not be discouraged to do so by me.
Ask yourself: if that picture was of Barack Obama being lynched and branded, don't you think that black organizations would have vociferously spoken out about it by now?
Bing, if you can not understand the difference between Emmitt Till's mother's actions and a drawing by some meatheads in an office cube who will draw a violent, sexualized snuff image of a woman (without her permission) for their own political agenda , then this blog might be too advanced for you. Sorry.
Bing, if you can not understand the difference between Emmitt Till's mother's actions and a drawing by some meatheads in an office cube who will draw a violent, sexualized snuff image of a woman (without her permission)...
Using peoples' likenesses to make political points is done constantly, sometimes sexualized, sometimes just to ridicule them. In that respect, the image strikes me as singularly unremarkable. Yeah, not especially classy, but unremarkable. You do see that her dress impossibly stays on in strategic places, don't you? The artist held back--and defied gravity to do it!
for their own political agenda,
"But I also think these folks should lay off my wife. All right? Just in case they're watching."
The goals of this image are to draw attention primarily to shabby treatment of Michelle Obama, which is right in line with what Barak was saying: the Republicans are using low tactics. There is, of course, the apparently unintentional (or just ignored) irony that that the artist uses side-boob to do it. Claaaa-sy.
It reminds me of is what I hear is the worst movie of all time. It's a 1938 disaster called "Child Brides." (Tagline, hand to heart: "A THROBBING DRAMA OF SHACKLED YOUTH!") Now, ostensibly the movie was made to say, "Marrying children is bad, m'kay?" but in actuality it says, "Check out the little kids in the extended skinny dipping scene!"
I would say that the image is clearly meant to resemble a B-movie poster, really drawing directly on not only the sensationalism, but also, let's face it, the way women were portrayed on those posters (with ripped bodices). There is also a sense in which it echoes a type of propaganda that took white fears about blacks and grafts in onto ideological enemies--again, we see the sexualized victim. See here, for example.
How does it rank as a piece of art? Well, I would say that the hyperbole distracts from the political message, and it is a failure. But a heavily footnoted failure.
HJ
"But I also think these folks should lay off my wife. All right? Just in case they're watching."
This statement is precisely why I do not waste time trying to engage in collaborative effort with men.
If you had read my prior posts you will see that I believe that black men, can not, will not, defend black women as a collective.
"Protection-worthy" status is afforded to women in their immediate family, and even that is iffy.
For that reason, black women, not black men, will take control of the black female image and likeness, and will be the determiners of what is ethical, 'classy', legal or moral.
Thank you for your thoughts, but they are a more eloquent version of a broken record that we hear every day. "Everybody does it, so it no big deal... unless it's MY woman."
We are past that. Next.
@Lisa:
1-I'm not responsible for educating White people. That is so over for me. If others have the patience to do that, they are welcome to it. At this point, I feel that if the blowback is painful & costly enough, they'll begin to learn on their own. As Whites have learned not to offend the Jewish community.
2-I consider it unrepentant when you persist in peddling/defending something AFTER you are told by the affected parties that it is offensive & hurtful.
Example A: The Chief Illiniwek Madness at the University of Illinois. Once Native Americans told Whites that having a mascot parading around in faux Indian garb & a feather headdress was offensive, they should have stopped. Whether they understood or not.
The original injury was in having the faux Native American mascot. Whites arrogantly presuming to tell the affected people that "no, it's not offensive, it's a sign of respect" added compounded the insult.
Whether one "gets it" or not, the appropriate response is to stop doing hurtful things.
Example B: Nobody Messes with Jewish Sensibilities; Whether They "Get It" or Not. People have gotten very good at self-censoring & self-policing when it comes to statements that might offend the Jewish community. Not because they necessarily "get it." But because the price they would pay for running afoul of them is just too high.
People's careers & livelihoods have been destroyed after they offended the Jewish community. And I don't have a problem with that. Everyone is free to organize to enforce whatever sanctions they wish. The same way everyone is free to organize to defend whatever persons & interests they wish to defend.
I'm sure you're aware of how some members of the Jewish community [Alan Dershowitz and others] have organized campaigns to oppose certain academics getting tenure because they are offended by these professors' positions regarding Israel/Palestine. Prof. Juan Cole of the blog "Informed Comment" was one target of these campaigns.
We need to enforce the same type of expensive sanctions.
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
This statement is precisely why I do not waste time trying to engage in collaborative effort with men.
If you had read my prior posts you will see that I believe that black men, can not, will not, defend black women as a collective.
For that reason, black women, not black men, will take control of the black female image and likeness, and will be the determiners of what is ethical, 'classy', legal or moral.
It seems to me that you are setting yourself up for a problem. This surely has occurred to you, but we do live in a pluralistic society where we have many freedoms, such as a freedom of speech. Freedom of speech comes with its logical consequence that you are going to be offended. Indeed, it is a sign that your freedom of speech is healthy (even if what people are saying is sick--that fundamental right to be wrong is more important than anything some bozo with Photoshop and too much time on his hands could possibly crank out.
Quite frankly, I don't see how it is possible to reign in what people say or think about you unless you engage with them. As for giving one group complete control over how they are represented, what is "ethical, 'classy', legal or moral," is just, well, a bad idea.
(Especially the legal part, for constitutional reasons.) The other aspects of representation, those are standards agreed upon by the community at large, and if you shut yourself out of it, I don't know how you can hope to reach those whose minds truly need changing.
Also, w/ respect to the Jewish thing: Alan Dershowitz doesn't have anything like that type of clout, and the Jewish community is nothing like as unified as khadija suggests. (You may have heard the saying: two Jews, three synagogues?)
At the same time it is fundamentally wrong for a person to fail to receive tenure for any other reason but failure to show yourself to be a competent scholar in your field, an inability to teach, or a failure to contribute to their department or school. You should be terrified, positively terrified, when someone gets denied tenure for their beliefs, no matter how odious they are.
And you don't need to accept it. You have every right to correct them as you see fit, just as much right as they have to make complete asses out of themselves.
I just thought I would offer this up.
HJ
@Bing:
I didn't say that Alan Dershowitz has clout. I don't care whether or not he personally has clout. I did say that Alan Dershowitz is one the people who have participated in campaigns to have tenure & jobs denied to professors whose views regarding Israel/Palestine he & others find offensive.
I also did not say that the Jewish community was unified. I don't care whether or not they are unified.
What I did, and am saying, is that activists from the Jewish community have been effective in shutting down anti-Jewish slurs & other speech they find offensive. I don't know if they've been effective in changing people's minds. I don't care about that either. But they have been effective in changing people's actions. If you are concerned about the professors whose careers have been damaged because of these campaigns, then I suggest you do what you can to support them.
Speaking for myself, I'm not interested in changing people's minds. They must cease & desist from their racist actions.
You are free to accept as much degradation that you find acceptable. I refuse. And there is nothing anyone could say that would convince me to accept degradation. Professed concern about reaching out to people won't convince me to accept degradation. Professed interest in changing people's minds won't convince me to accept degradation. No.
Peace.
@Comrade Lisa: {since you seem to often reject the other, more hierarchy-involved titles you could wear---you know what I'm talking about, Right Reverend Lisa! *LOL*}
You referred to "the miseducation of the Caucasian." I laughed today & when I orginally read it on your blog. "The Miseducation of the Negro" is one of my favorite books!
I had also read of the Brownfemipower saga over at Anxious Black Woman's blog. I got the feeling that the Latina blogger was just too exhausted to pursue the plagiarism issue. Too tired to sue. Too tired to chase down the White female thief. And too tired to continue dealing with her blog. It happens to people.
And I agree that we have to DO something [as an organized bloc] in response to these acts of aggression. I'm just not the person to figure out what. I'm too busy being a "general" with some other issues right now. For now, I'm a "private" when it comes to this kind of stuff. When a higher-ranking officer gives me my marching orders, I'll follow them. It's not flattering for me to admit this in public; but this is my reality at the moment.
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
@Lisa:
Isn't it interesting how the only time that certain people come out of lurking is to 'warn' us poor, misguided little wimmin (out of utmost concern, of course) of the 'incorrect' direction of our self-advocacy and to give us a primer on what we are and are not capable of? LOL
On another note: I am a true believer in the power of honest and humble discourse.
However, similar to yours, my mission is not to re-educate misguided Caucasians although I would be absolutely delighted if that became a byproduct of my life's efforts.
I do believe, however, that there are Bishops out there who have that gift. We also have allies who do not look like us. I am usually very careful not to stereotype all white people, although I may slip now and again and fail to put qualifiers about WHICH people I am talking about.
But before I started this blog, I spent MONTHS in meditation, because I knew that the day would come when I would have to pay a price for my speech. I am fine with that -- but I also knew that my family would also pay a price -- which became a problem.
We, who are on the front lines, do not have the luxury of using pseudonyms and hiding under the cloak of anonymity for long. We are called upon to speak in larger, offline arenas, and have to come out from behind the computer screen and to stand up for what we believe in.
I have made my choice. I anxiously await my fellow Queens who will do the same.
Question to all: what do you think should be the best answer to this DailyKos image? Don't answer now. We'll talk about it on Tuesday at The Queens' Council.
Bing said:
Also, w/ respect to the Jewish thing: Alan Dershowitz doesn't have anything like that type of clout, and the Jewish community is nothing like as unified as khadija suggests. (You may have heard the saying: two Jews, three synagogues?)
Very true. *whew!* between a Dr. (Bing) Jihad and a (former NOI) Khadija talking about jewish topics, its getting hot in here. LOL!
Shecodes said:
Question to all: what do you think should be the best answer to this DailyKos image? Don't answer now. We'll talk about it on Tuesday at The Queens' Council.
Is it okay to email an answer since I won't be able to catch the live podcast w/o being up at 4am over here?
@Miriam:
Not that there's anything wrong with being a member, but I've never been a member of the NOI.
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
Bing:
As for giving one group complete control over how they are represented, what is "ethical, 'classy', legal or moral," is just, well, a bad idea.
My reply:
Wow, just wow. I can't believe I just read this.
Image is everything, and no group who has its own self-preservation in mind will ever let others define what their image in the public is to be.
Historical imagery in this country going back centuries have defined how different groups in this country are presented, seen, visualized, imagined, etc.
We are still dealing with the consequences of those images today and their persistence in the popular imagination.
Khadija said...
@Miriam:
Not that there's anything wrong with being a member, but I've never been a member of the NOI.
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
~~~~
Oh sorry. Why did I think that.
Miriam, feel free to post your thoughts about a response to the DailyKos here.
@PWV: The shocking naivety of that statement made me pause as well.
You would think that a black man, who would know that the black male image has been relegated to near animal status or comedic buffoon in many media outlets, would see the importance of gaining control over the collective's image.
I suppose that he thinks that black women will follow the pattern of the Nazi propaganda machine once we get that control and attempt to take over the world? The idea reads like a comic magazine, really.
khadija said:
When a higher-ranking officer gives me my marching orders, I'll follow them. It's not flattering for me to admit this in public; but this is my reality at the moment.
There is absolutely nothing unflattering about your stance.
The only people who devalue pawns are those who do not really know the game of strategy very well. We all should be foot soldiers in different areas of our lives.
Ok.
(1) I personally don't think the picture should be spread around. Bad or good publicity it doesn't deserve. Its like saying to the world, "attention everyone: this is what presses our buttons!"
(2)I just wonder what motivated Daily Kos to do this and what prompted him to recant. Perhaps THAT can be a model for the next time a so called "pro-BW" or so called pro-supporter goes astray.
(I understand it was more the callousness that is abhorrent, but I still think the picture itself was bad as well.)
@Shecodes:
Thank you. Sometimes I still feel twinges of guilt for being a pawn & awaiting orders in certain situations. Culturally, we don't promote the virtues of being an efficient footsoldier. The so-called Talented Tenth is encouraged to show leadership for all places & occassions.
Peace, blessings & solidarity.
What's being done about this depiction of Michelle Obama?
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