Black women are brilliant. Read their words.

Street Harassment: The Black Girl's Bat Mitzvah by Maya Francis

Street harassment, in its own sick way, was the way I figured out I wasn’t a little girl any more. Even though, at 15 years old, I was very much a child. It’s almost a rite of passage. The Black girl’s Bat Mitzvah.

If you’ve ever followed the conversations on Twitter, you’re probably pretty versed on what street harassment is. It’s when some mouth breathing asshole decides that a great way to get a woman’s attention is to honk his horn at her. Or make passes at her while she’s walking down the street minding her own damn business. Or physically stop her. Or call her a cunt when she doesn’t give him the response he wants. He “deserves.” Or worse.

There are, of course, levels to this shit. Some of these idiots are harmless. But — and fellas please pay attention — when it’s dark and/or you’re alone, it can be very hard to differentiate between harmless idiot and fucking criminal.

Across the web, Black women are producing incredible content on a wide range of topics. We've come across these 8 pieces by Black women that deserve your attention.

Black Twitter has become a haven for those who delight in tearing down Black women for the slightest perceived flaw, but if you're a woman who dares go against the group of "Black Twitter Elite" (read: unabashed misogynists with lots of followers) you can expect to be torn to shreds by men and women desperately seeking validation. Just ask Courtney AKA @WetAsTheCee.

Only recently have I come to appreciate my quiet, suburban upbringing. My single mother worked tirelessly to provide her kids a safe, secure childhood unlike the one she'd known.

The choice to live in affluent, predominately white communities was mom's attempt to help my sister and I overcome the trappings of life in black, female bodies. But of course she couldn't shield us completely. We never feared for our safety, and we always attended great schools. But being one of only a handful of African American kids submersed in a sea of whiteness had its own pitfalls.  The often overt bigotry I endured left a stain of insecurity and self doubt on my nascent consciousness. That is the reality of my early existence.

When people like Daisy Barringer of XOJane.com speak of an idyllic childhood in which they never had to encounter racism, I simply cannot relate.She writes:

"...it wasn't until I went to college at NYU that I began to learn there were derogatory terms used to insult entire races, religions, and ethnicities."

Must be nice.

Men and women of Color don't get to be blissfully unaware of racial pejoratives. They have their innocence stolen early by hatefulness. It's an awful, unavoidable reality.

A reality I sometimes assume the majority of competent beings of all ethnic backgrounds have acknowledged. Then I see a blog post like "Do We Really Think That Headline Was Intentionally Racist," and I'm quickly reminded that willful ignorance of the lived experiences of People of Color persists.

"The Headline" is the one in which Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks was referred to as a "Chink in the Armor" by Anthony Federico of ESPN.com. Federico was rightfully fired over the incident, but Daisy thinks the outrage toward the writer was unwarranted because she, herself, had never heard the term used as a slur.

How is that possible? You ask. Apparently Daisy lives in a utopic bubble wherein you can completely avoid the inconvenient nastiness of a society built on oppression.

Fact of that matter is, as I’ve gotten older and somewhat wiser, I’ve made a conscious effort not to learn what these words  mean. I can't help but know they exist, but if I don’t ask what they mean or who they're about when I do have the unfortunate chance of hearing them,  I’m not inviting the ugly thoughts and stereotypes into my life. 

Again. Must be nice.

It's ok to not know things, but these sentiments evidence a refusal to listen to and trust those whom racism affects daily. I understand it's difficult for many who've always been explicitly catered to to understand this, but it's not always about you.

White people get to claim naïveté while simultaneously perpetuating the silencing of minority voices. Because how could they ever have known about the complexities of an existence so far removed from their own?

Cluelessness is a cover for flat refusal to self-educate on white privilege. This is, of course, where the Magical Minorities are expected to swoop down, play professor and graciously teach about the damaging racial constructs that have wreaked havoc on POC communities for hundreds of years in this country. I, however, reject that expectation.

Because she managed to publish her blog, I am sure Daisy has access to this incredible thing called the internet which facilitates access to countless resources for those who desire to acquire knowledge. The writer obviously has no such yearning--citing an unwillingness to "invite the ugly thoughts and stereotypes" into her life. Here's the thing, Daisy: POC cannot escape that ugly.

It gets worse.

Daisy not only revels in her admitted ignorance, but she blames POC for raising the issue of Federico's racist words. In the classic game of white privilege called "It's Not Me, It's You," she asserts those who recognized the racist double entendre were the racist ones. (Heard that one before?)

Once I realized that everyone was, in fact, livid about the usage of the word "chink," despite the fact that the phrase "chink in the armor" accurately described Lin's first real sign of weakness, I couldn't help but think that perhaps it was everyone else who was racist, not the writer.

It couldn't have been that when one is constantly beseiged by micro and macro aggressions one becomes adept at spotting them. Nope. We're just oversensitive whiners.

Quite frankly I'm amazed by Barringer's audacity in telling POC what they should be offended by, but let's say, for a moment, Federico really did make an "honest mistake." Then at the very least he's an incompetent who still deserves to lose his job for the oversight. If he can't catch a racist pun in the middle of the onslaught of coverage about the implications of Lin's ethnicity, he's grossly negligent. People have been fired for less.

Most offensive is Barringer's contention that outrage over Federico's insensitivity is "just as horrible as racism." This is how you know Daisy Barringer truly has no grasp of what racism actually is. Racism keeps ethnic minorities underpaid, underfed, undereducated, and underemployed. That icky feeling you get when someone calls you out on your bull doesn't even come close.

Structural oppression persists because of the unwillingness of those with privilege to step outside of themselves.

Please excuse me if I'm unmoved by the incredulity of Daisy and others who struggle to figure out how racism works. I've never been afforded the luxury of being so naive.


Kimberly Foster is the Editor and Publisher of For Harriet. Email her at Kimberly@ForHarriet.com with comments or find her on Twitter.

Via FreshXpress - Sexism has a unique way of subordinating Black women. It is a Black woman’s duty, so we are told, to suppress our urges toward equality. Black women have always been expected to prioritize the components of their identity so that race takes precedence over gender. If feminist implications arise that may offend our Black men, even in gender’s relegated position, they are expected to be ignored in favor of Black manhood. The effects of this phenomenon are that Black women have spent considerable time ignoring their feminine needs in an effort to emphasize their race. Consequently, the expression of their womanhood is frustrated and often comes out in an “angry Black woman” kind of way. Most attempts to assert our equality are construed as an “emasculation” of our Black men. Justified through theories of divine order or threats of indefinite loneliness, Black men still re-enforce the obligation of Black women to prioritize and solidify Black manhood.

Every so often, I run across comments by Black men that remind me how stealth and active cultural sexism still is. As an undergraduate, one such comment served as the entire basis for my honor’s thesis. In summation, a Black man commented on the radio “I don’t see how Black women can vote for Hillary Clinton. If you’re voting based solely on demographics you have an obligation to vote for Barack because you’re Black before you’re a woman.” I sought confirmation of my outrage from my two bosses at the time (both Black males) who replied “umm duh Shy! You ARE Black before you’re a woman. You didn’t know that?!” They seemed puzzled at my reaction as if I had missed some quintessential Black community belief.

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From Black and Married With Kids

According to a recent Match.com poll, 50% of women say it would be okay for their date to pay with a coupon. I consider myself somewhat financially literate, but I still would never in a million years whip out a coupon on a date. But hey, that’s just me.

I have to ask you ladies, if your husband pulled out a coupon on your first date, would you still have married him? Many sisters would view using a coupon as a savvy financial move, a hint that their man was knowledgeable about money.

Others, I’m sure, would consider it a cheapskate play. A man who valued their company so little as not to feel the need to pay the full “retail” price for the experience, might not get a second chance.

Now, I know on first glance this may sound like a silly question – should you use coupons on a date? – but it’s just one of many subtle signals that we all give off while courting the objects of our affection. And perhaps it’s these signals that could predict future financial bliss or disaster in marriage.

Read more here

I've been anxiously awaiting the response to the Carol's Daughter fiasco from What About Our Daughters founder Gina McCauley, but her annual blogcation made a takedown seem unlikely. Gina's proven herself to be a fierce warrior for Black women, and she over-delivered as per usual.

She writes:

Generally speaking most brands that create products for a specific demographic, don't go out of their way to say that their customers are unimportant, unwanted, or obsolete. They may think it, but they will never build a marketing campaign around it.

Behold Carol's Daughter, a company that built itself targeting Black women's beauty and their desire to throw their Black women customers under the bus by declaring that Black women are no longer important and no longer exist.

I never should have doubted her. She goes on to effortlessly dissect the ad's apparent flaws.

It's still difficult to understand how such a tone deaf campaign emanated from a marketing "genius" like Steve Stoute or a visionary like Lisa Price. But the move is ultimately unsurprising. Black women underestimate our value because we are told we are worthless, but how long would Carol's Daughter last without the dollars of us non-exotic beauties?

-Kimberly Foster

Carol's Daughter HATES Black women- Why no Self-Respecting Black Woman Should EVER Purchase Carol's Daughter Products EVER! [What About Our Daughters]

At what point should one willingly remove themselves from the dating pool? Would you date him? Share your thoughts!

[Black Girl Unlost via Rantings of a Creole Princess]

The comingling of patriarchy and white supremacy has produced a crop of blog posts and articles that devolved the "lonely black woman" trope into offensive comparisons of the values and presumed worth of white women versus those of black women.

These posts are written by and for Black women, and Clutch Magazine's Brande Victorian asks why we're so quick to cosign:

I think there is something inherently dangerous about making these sorts of comparisons. It’s not enough that blond hair and blue eyes are revered as the ideal standard of beauty by society as a whole, and that some black men will gladly step up and let everyone know why they prefer white women to loud, ghetto, hyper-independent black women, but now black women are telling one another to look up to white women as examples of how to be successful in relationships. What message are we sending ourselves when we make statements like, “white women are winning,” which implies we are losing?

Black blogs capitalize off of controversial yet harmful stereotypes of both groups. Hopefully the next time the mood strikes to contrast the plight of the downtrodden black woman with the victory of the virtuous white woman, we can stop and devise new themes that might move the conversation forward.

Black Women Are Drinking the Kool-Aid [Clutch]