Gradient Lair

Black Women Who Made The Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women List

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:36:00 -0400

Forbes annually releases a list of influential women in business, politics, media and more. This year’s list did have quite a few women of colour mentioned. (View all 100.)

Here are the Black women that were included:

#04 Michelle Obama (First Lady of the United States)
#13 Oprah Winfrey (Media Mogul, Philanthropist)
#14 Ursula Burns (Chairman and CEO, Xerox)
#17 Beyoncé (Entrepreneur, Artist)
#44 Rosalind Brewer (President and CEO, Sam’s Club)
#47 Joyce Banda (President of Malawi)
#49 Ertharin Cousin (Executive Director, World Food Programme, United Nations)
#68 Helene Gayle (President and CEO, CARE)
#83 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Minister of Finance, Nigeria)
#84 Risa Lavizzo-Mourey (President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
#87 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (President of Liberia)

Some of these women also made the Time 100 List.

Kerry Washington giving the commencement address at George...

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:41:53 -0400

Kerry Washington giving the commencement address at George Washington University, receiving her honorary doctorate degree (she earned a BA in 1998 from the same university) and people trying to capture a photograph of her. :)

The ever so brilliant and fabulous Kerry Washington gave the...

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:36:09 -0400

The ever so brilliant and fabulous Kerry Washington gave the commencement address at her alma mater (c/o 1998 and Phi Theta Kappa) George Washington University. I recall the announcement for it—how they used an “Olivia Pope” photo for it. Speaks to the influence of Scandal. She’s wore her mommy’s (Dr. Valerie Washington) doctoral robe! How sweet. Her speech is good; I liked this part:

But the choice is yours; when you leave here today and commence the next stage of your life, you can follow someone else’s script, try to make choices that will make other people happy, avoid discomfort, do what is expect and copy the status quo or you can look at all that you have accomplished today and use it as fuel to venture forth and write your own story. If you do, amazing things will take shape.

Oh wow, a commencement address where the students are encouraged to challenge the status quo versus them being patronized, insulted and offered “tough love” after 2-7 years of academic, emotional, psychological and financial challenges. Didn’t realize it was possible this graduation season.

Kerry’s allusion to “writing your own story” while challenging the status quo reminds me of Toni Morrison’s amazing commencement address at Rutgers University in 2011. Awesome.

"I don’t think police should have been involved because I’m a good student for one. And..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:49:14 -0400

“

I don’t think police should have been involved because I’m a good student for one. And two, it was a big deal, but it wasn’t like people were hurt and the school was in shatters. I maybe should have gotten 10 days suspension or a work detail where on Saturday you wake up early and pick up trash around the school.

I was very relieved they were dropping the charges. It means I can actually do something with my life. I was afraid this would be on my criminal record. I want to go to college and get a degree in technology design and engineering. I want a career building robots that can do tasks like surgeries or driving cars.

A couple good things have come out of this. Someone heard about what happened to me and gave me a scholarship to space camp. I’m super stoked about space camp with Mr. Hickam this summer! There’s a zero-gravity tank I can’t wait to try! But it’s been pretty rough for my sister. Recently she was hit in the face by a girl. It’s been hard because we usually do everything together. I’m getting all the attention and scholarships and she feels left out.

Right now I’m at Bill Duncan Opportunity Center, which is for students who were kicked out of school. People are teasing me and calling me a terrorist. And the school is actually quite easy. I’m not getting the challenge that I used to have. I don’t have homework. There is no German class, and there is no orchestra. I probably couldn’t even bring my cello because I was told the students would steal it.

I was very happy about everyone signing petitions. I think a lot of people have supported me because I’m so young and everybody makes mistakes.

My message to young students is to study your passion and work towards your dreams and goals no matter what gets in your way.

”

- Kiera Wilmot

She spoke about her own case on ACLU’s website. So many thoughts have gone through my head since I originally wrote about her case and since hearing about the criminal charges dropped. So happy for her yet hurting for the students suffering at the school she was forced to attend and even the stress that it put on her family. No one stops to think about why the other children end up at a school like that. They are not arbitrarily pathological. They face odds purposely designed for their failure from the moment that they enter kindergarten, let alone from birth.

School to prison pipeline. Also read this paper, Race, Gender...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:46:00 -0400

School to prison pipeline. Also read this paper, Race, Gender and The School To Prison Pipeline: Expanding Our Discussion To Include Black Girls.

christel-thoughts: If you haven’t heard this, stop what you’re...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:27:22 -0400

christel-thoughts:

If you haven’t heard this, stop what you’re doing and listen. Janelle Monae - “Peachtree Blues”

Exquisite song. Loved the vibe. I want her and Esperanza Spalding to do something together now.

sonofbaldwin: The black family shows up in ways the mainstream...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:53:00 -0400

sonofbaldwin:

The black family shows up in ways the mainstream media can’t understand. We don’t always have wealth, but we try to pass on whatever it is we have to give.

They are amazing and adorable. You can see how their love for each other radiates every dance move. They’re a sweet family and they made me cry. :)

prettyplussize: Camelia Shantelle She’s fabulous.

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:34:22 -0400

prettyplussize:

Camelia Shantelle

She’s fabulous.

affrm: @AFFRM is proud to partner with Los Angeles Film...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:13:06 -0400

affrm:

@AFFRM is proud to partner with Los Angeles Film Festival for the world premiere of VENUS VS. directed by Ava DuVernay. Tickets now on sale!

The late great Shirley Chisholm, as photographed by the...

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:04:22 -0400

The late great Shirley Chisholm, as photographed by the legendary Richard Avedon. Look…Shirley was THAT Black woman. Feminist. Humanist. Unbought. Unbossed. WORD.

Read This Week

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:51:06 -0400

This is my 47th Read This Week feature! Every week since Gradient Lair’s inception (it’s a year old now!) with the exception of a few weeks, I’ve posted essays, articles, journal articles and/or papers that I’ve recently read and share with you based on your interest in this blog.

Below are great reads…

I Don’t Mean To Be Dramatic… by @liberated_lez is a great read. TRIGGER WARNING for childhood sexual abuse and violence. She shares an honest and brave essay about a male family member who abused her, how some of her family engaged in victim blaming, and how years later, she knows it was NOT her fault.

The Perils of Funny Feminism by @graceishuman is an important read that addresses White middle-class feminists and their defense of comedy that attacks marginalized women, as well as their goals to make feminism “fun” even to the point that its purpose becomes fragmented and even kyriarchal.

The Racial Politics of Atheism by Sikivu Hutchinson is a fascinating read. This is an interview for her new book Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels. She states “There is no evidence that people of color—especially women of color—are rejecting organized religion, much less God, in any significant numbers. I wanted to explore the reason for this, while at the same time providing a radical voice for the growing numbers of openly identified non-believers of color.” She critiques mainstream White atheism and its lack of commitment to social justice as well. A lot folks ain’t ready for this level of intersectional thinking! Most think it should be team theism or team racist atheism, as if other perspectives cannot exist, such as one without theism but also committed to social justice.

Call for Papers: Women of Color Beyond Faith Anthology is a post that is asking for writing from women of colour who identify as non-believers, atheists, humanists etc. The anthology is going to be edited by Black women, including Sikivu Hutchinson herself. Why I included it in this particular Read This Week is because the questions posed at the bottom, as possible topics for writing, are interesting and probing.

Why We Can’t Blame Parents For Educational Inequality by Bruce Foster at Still Furious and Still Brave is a great read. He writes: “Placing the onus on parents to ensure that their children have equitable educational experiences and outcomes excuses the ways in which inequality is often embedded in school, state, and national policies. Blaming parents also fails to recognize the extent to which they face different constraints based on their social and economic background.”

Stay tuned for new suggestions next week!

Patronizing Paternalism, White Supremacy and The Obamas' Commencement Addresses at HBCUs

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:26:14 -0400

After learning about the content of President Obama’s speech at Morehouse, I let out a tired sigh because it was actually worse than I expected. To be clear, he is a great orator with a skill that is truly a gift and a honed craft. He will probably be memorialized in history among the Presidents who are great orators such as Lincoln, FDR and Kennedy. But that’s not the point right now. I am not discussing ability. I am discussing content and context.

I was so bothered by his speech yesterday that I actually posted one of my favorite commencement addresses in recent times, Toni Morrison at Rutgers in 2011. Toni rarely holds back and every word she says or doesn’t say is deliberate. She critiqued Thomas Jefferson, let alone discussed the commitment to justice that those graduates need to have. She had no White approval to seek. Rejecting that approval while having a commitment to justice has garnered her success in spite of White supremacy and racism, not by downplaying their existence. I not only chose to post her speech because it is one in stark contrast to President Obama’s at Morehouse and First Lady Michelle Obama’s at Bowie State University, both HBCUs, unlike Rutgers, but because both of them have cited Morrison as among their favorite authors. I now find this ironic, actually.

In How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America by Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic he examined several instances by President Obama where his words to Black Americans seem targeted and pathology-oriented. About the Morehouse speech he wrote:

Taking the full measure of the Obama presidency thus far, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this White House has one way of addressing the social ills that afflict black people — and particularly black youth — and another way of addressing everyone else. I would have a hard time imagining the president telling the women of Barnard that “there’s no longer room for any excuses” — as though they were in the business of making them. Barack Obama is, indeed, the president of ‘all America,’ but he also is singularly the scold of ‘black America.’

Despite the fact that sexism, homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism are problematic in our society, women, LGBTQ people and Jews are never addressed with bootstrap theory and patronizing paternalistic content. Why? All of those oppressed groups still involve Whites. Blacks, as an oppressed group via race, does not. White supremacy remains in tact when those groups are not critiqued and Blacks are, despite those groups having intersectional experiences with oppression. Because of the stark differences in power when an oppressed group involves Whites versus when it does not, it is much more dangerous for President Obama to critique the former versus the latter, in terms of political fallout.

In Tough Love or Stereotypical Shot? Michelle Obama’s HBCU Graduation Speech on Clutch Magazine, the author Harmony raises a great question. The problem is both answers are awful. This intraracial maternalism that Michelle Obama engaged in with her speech seemed like an assignment hoisted on her by a White supremacist society where she is the Black mom who will try to fix the ills of the “arbitrarily pathological” Black child; the Black American population. She was among Black elites—college graduates, in a country where only 30% of all adults have Bachelors degrees and only 20% of Black adults have Bachelors degrees and it was a time for “tough love” as the “best” outcome of a speech? Even the “best” outcome for this speech is one I find beneath who I thought Michelle Obama was and beneath those graduates who worked hard to have that special day. Respectability politics, victim blaming, bootstrap theory, intraracial classism and more filled that speech. I’ve always loved Michelle Obama and defended her from the racist, sexist and misogynoirist attacks that she faces in general society and even from within progressive spaces, but this speech was just as problematic as President Obama’s.

This isn’t to say that those “tough love” speeches should be hoisted at the poor and those who aren’t college graduates, as President Obama did in Chicago with his gun violence speech. As long as the effects of structural inequality and oppression on Black life is portrayed as “arbitrary pathology” that “personal responsibility” can fix, then Black people remain the ones who have to be responsible for the effects of racism, While Whites claim no responsibility for anything, continue to benefit from racism and continue to deny it through White privilege.

While I’ve never truly felt that either of them were fully committed to social justice (whether by a combination of force in a White supremacist society and by choice; and I’ve read so much on them and studied them beyond MSNBC or Fox News), yet I do realize the relevance of their ascension into political, social, and cultural power as Black individuals, a Black couple and a Black family (obviously I do; I’ve shared many positive photographs as well as some nuanced posts illustrating my complex views on them, especially on Barack Obama’s role as President), there is no way I can or will positively spin these speeches into something that they are not. They were patronizing, paternalistic, White supremacist, classist, minimized the role of racism and oppression and played into very old stereotypes about Blackness, ones that never should have to surface and be given so much space on such a large platform, but also ones that seem genuinely out of place at college graduations. If by society’s own (problematic) standards, the elites that are college graduates are still not “responsible” enough if they are Black, when are Black people good enough? When?

In addition to my anger about this, I also got a good laugh from the satirical yet poignant short essay, The Obamas Double Teamed That Ass by Son of Baldwin, because he animates the Obama’s manifestation of exceptionalism and how utterly problematic and dangerous it has become. There are no excuses to be made for these speeches. They have no election to win and no Whites to pacify to win it. They spoke around Black people, not to Black people with these speeches. They affirmed the negative views of Black people and played into exceptionalism.

Patronizing paternalism disguised as “tough love” for Black people yet no “tough love” messages are crafted for Whites to challenge them on the systemic, institutional and structural inequalities that create the racist oppression that Black people face, impacting their choices? Toni Morrison found a way to do just that with her commencement address, in part of which she said “personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life, it is a trivial one.”

It is truly amazing how “personal responsibility” only applies to Blacks. Whites continue to have zero accountability when it comes to White privilege, racism and White supremacy. Both of these speeches reminded them of that. I suspect that was the intent, especially amidst these recent faux and real scandals that the White House faces. Unfortunately, the price of pacifying Whites in a White supremacist society is always the re-affirmation of the “justified” oppression of Blacks, who need to simply “man-up” and “get over” the oppression which has never ended. I don’t support such a message, whether the messenger is White or Black, whether the messenger is someone non-famous or someone I voted for to become the first Black President and First Lady of the United States.

Ha! As a mom, Beyoncé is STILL NOT HERE for your gender...

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:38:29 -0400

Ha! As a mom, Beyoncé is STILL NOT HERE for your gender binaries. I love how they dress her, in general. In this photo, you see this beautiful little girl with her back to you. The symbolism is great. She doesn’t need your opinion of her to matter, it’s of no consequence. Then, she is wearing a jersey, something always viewed as “masculine,” yet it is a salmon shade (not quite pink, which is ridiculously deemed “feminine”), a colour that both women and men wear. Then she has on a super “feminine” tutu.

People have hurled all sorts of sexism, misogynoir, and homophobia at Blue Ivy. It’s disgusting and unacceptable. When I look at this photograph, I see the tiny flame that may very well grow up into a fire that will be a force to be reckoned with, just like her mother. Love it.

A Black Man Asked "Whose 'Side' Are Black Women On?"

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:51:00 -0400

While I was perusing tags related to feminism on Tumblr, I came across a post by a Black man with a sentiment that I’ve seen many times. He posted a photograph of a Black man’s lynched corpse with a White woman looking at it with laughter. His commentary suggested that “feminazism” is destroying Black men (as its goal) and whose side are most Black women on, Black men’s or White women’s?

First of all, the fact that a Black man would conflate feminism with Nazism, when both Black men and Black women faced multiple holocausts during slavery is astoundingly ahistorical and hyperbolic. The word “Feminazi” rose to popularity via Rush Limbaugh. Funny how this “conscious” Black man quickly aligns with White patriarchy, and a racist at that, when the critique is of Black women.

Secondly, interestingly enough, he chose a lynching photo with no White men present. Why? Because his perception of Black men as victims can’t include critique of White men if assuming the patriarchal power that Black men (and White women) want to share with White men, versus questioning oppression itself, is an ultimate goal. Black men who heavily critique feminism and demand dog-like loyalty to patriarchy from Black women tend to want to mimic or share the power White men have. This means that they will never truly critique White supremacy itself, beyond what power they critique White women for (and some won’t even do this due to sexual interest in White women), because why critique the type of corrupt power that one desires? (I critiqued this very same line of thinking before, which fuels many Black men’s love for the film Django Unchained.)

White fear of Black male sexuality and economic, political and social competition is what fueled lynching as a practice. Even if the charge against a Black man was due to a White woman’s claim (and these same women watched and enjoyed lynching as an entertainment of “strange fruit”) ultimately White men had to physically engage in the practice of lynching. Thus, for him to choose a photo where no White men are present is quite telling. Oh and…Black women were lynched too.

Thirdly, some Black men just as some White women tend to view Black women solely as “sidekicks” to “their” causes, not women and humans with our own causes and needs, ones most definitely shaped by intersectional experiences. We aren’t only Black. We aren’t only women. He didn’t include any images/stories about Black men street harassing, committing domestic violence, raping or murdering Black women. He chose to show Black men only as victims and posits that Black women are responsible for Black men’s victimhood. This is fascinating since Black women, from Billie Holiday to Ida B. Wells were some of the most outspoken against lynching of Black men. Today, Black women like Michelle Alexander are incredibly outspoken against how Prison Industrial Complex impacts Black men. Black women are often deemed not to be supportive enough and ahistorical, decontextualized “evidence” is always proffered by Black men as proof. (Some even have the audacity to cite that racist and misogynoirist Moynhian Report from ‘65. Disgusting. Read Patricia Hill Collins’ critique of that report in Black Feminist Thought.) Amazingly enough, not interpersonally obeying patriarchal orders from Black men and in their perception, not being committed “enough” to being sidekicks of “their” causes versus full human beings and voices for our own and collective Black causes is viewed by some Black men as “aligning” with White women.

I can only laugh at this. They obviously have not heard any actual discourse and dissent between Black and White women, feminist or not. Black womanists/feminists and White feminists have not walked this magical path of unity that Black men seem to think we have, especially one based on destroying Black men. Black men who think so know nothing about women’s actual lives, I suspect.

The idea that Black women are just “copying” White women in terms of womanist/feminist theory and praxis proves again that some Black men know nothing about Black women beyond what they would like us to be, stereotypes and externally constructed notions of Black womanhood. (Once, one of my sisters responded to an extremely disgusting drawing posted on Facebook; it had the same sentiments of Black women being monsters out to get Black men and controlled by Whites.) If being a whole human being as a Black woman, not a sidekick of “team Black men” (or “team White women”) is viewed as a “threat” to Black masculinity, then Black men need to examine why our dehumanization is needed for them to feel like men. Will they ever be able to visualize and embrace masculinity without domination? At which point will they actually critique White men and White supremacy itself for the issues that they think dog-like loyalty from Black women is magically going to fix?

I am not on a “team” in that feminism is a gimmick; I am not going to choose between race and gender for sport. I am TIRED of Black men (and White women) suggesting this. At the same time, I am committed to the liberation of all oppressed people, which INCLUDES me and other Black women, as people, not platforms for Black men to stand on. Intersectionality or bust. I will not be anyone’s doormat, especially for wiping ahistorical boots with soles made of patriarchy, sexism and misogynoir.

“It was painful to realize that many men rarely consider reading what women write, or bother to listen to what women are saying about how we feel. How we perceive life. How we think things should be. That they cannot honor our struggles or our pain. That they see our stories as meaningless to them, or assume they are absent from them, or distorted. Or think they must own or control our expressions. And us.” - Alice Walker

Here’s a commencement address by a Black person that...

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:37:00 -0400

Here’s a commencement address by a Black person that doesn’t involve respectability politics, “Talented Tenth” speak, bootstrap theory and reductionism of the manifestation of oppression by victim blaming via “personal responsibility” politics. (Ahem…Obama).

This commencement address is Toni Morrison at Rutgers University in 2011. Exquisite. Listen to every word carefully.

“Personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life, it is a trivial one.” - Toni Morrison

Classic Ebony Magazine cover of Betty Shabazz (May 28, 1934 -...

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:03:35 -0400

Classic Ebony Magazine cover of Betty Shabazz (May 28, 1934 - June 23, 1997): educator, activist, mother of 6 and the widow of Malcolm X. This was only a few years after he was assassinated. I am trying to find the original article. No luck yet.

Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz - May 19, 1925 –...

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:47:00 -0400

Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz - May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965. Happy Birthday.

I saw this fabulous photograph on a Pinterest board called Big...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:25:16 -0400

I saw this fabulous photograph on a Pinterest board called Big Beautiful Black Girls. They baaaad! She’s beautiful and I love her style.

She’s fabulous. The denim jacket is giving me nostalgic...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:20:18 -0400

She’s fabulous. The denim jacket is giving me nostalgic 80s vibes. Her skin is exquisite. Black = beautiful.

Wow. So pretty!

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:55:17 -0400

Wow. So pretty!