Monday, November 24, 2008

The Struggle Continues: The State of Black & Brown Women with an Unprecendented Past

The Struggle Continues

After reading a few essays in Giddings text, When and Where I Enter, my mind is stuck around framing the issues Black women fought for during the suffrage period to those that Black women face today, and I can’t help but to draw several comparisons. Questioning the fight for the ballot, our fight to be viewed as political beings, the fight for freedom from being sexually exploited, and the fight to fight for the intersecting identities we carry (both in the larger society and within our own communities where our struggles for the race and gender are recognized by both groups) amongst many others. It stands that these were reigning issues that were brought up in Giddings writings in reference to the historical precedents of Black women’s roles in the many liberation struggles she has fought in the past are the same issues for Black women today.

Although we have transcended the issue of getting the right to vote, legally, the validation or proper inclusion of those votes are still fringed (as depicted in the 2001 and 2004 voters Blackout), and with this being an overall racial disenfranchisement, the same ideals rest around black women within the black community. Thus the struggle haven’t really been transcended at all, making it incredibly important for Black woman and allies alike to investigate the ways in which our efforts have been silenced, impeached and suppressed, over turned, ignored, and unsuccessful in order to adequately push forward with our agendas for change. Besides the ballot, Black women still remain one of the largest groups that are sexually exploited and objectified to this day as we were one hundred years ago. What does that say about progress and the power of the system to perpetuate these nuances of oppression? What does this also suggest about our strength and tolerance to endure blow after blow of crap that is beyond our power to even put an end to such? But most of all, what does this say about the ineffective collective aid (if you will) that has yet to come to our defense within all the work that we put out, not only for our own liberation but for that of many. When reading the essays, one of the things that spoke the loudest to me was how time after time, it was noted that Black women were more than willing to form alliances with the liberation struggles that were taking place around them and how a Black feminist critique has always evolved with such by including the fight of others within their own fight. However, what also stuck out was how time after time, others failed to do the same in not being able to see themselves and their oppression within the Black woman’s fight to unveil her casting as other in society. How white women failed at joining her during her efforts around anti-lynching or voting, or gender equality, leaving her to struggle with obtaining her own womanhood, while holding onto their narrative of whiteness and superiority. Or how Black men showed disregard for her fight to be included in casting the ballot or her need to speak out for her oppression against patriarchy and sexual exploitation; never wanting to let go of their narrative of privilege as men. She even played her part in the labor struggle against the exploitation that’s wrapped up in the toils of those industries which affect all working peoples in this country across race, class, and gender. Although coalition building has made great strides, the issues surrounding the Black woman’s body are just as prevalent as they were 100 years ago, so one still has to raise these questions: where is the aid, relief, and support for the Black woman in her liberation struggle? When will the fighting come to an end? When will these oppressive hierarchal dichotomies realize her humanity and stop the domination over her body and mind? Or when will we rise up and stop being afraid of the road to freedom and tear down such governing systems? But most of all, I would like someone to answer me this, will the humanity I see in myself and in my freedom be enough to take this on the task of educating people on the toils of their own humanity alongside that of their neighbors while; if not what else is needed and when will it come?