When Don Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hoes”, folks from coast to coast completely flipped their lids. “We should not allow any (White) man to demean our beautiful Black women” was the chosen piece that was sung by the Outrage Against White Men Mass Choir.
Fast forward a few years and now we have some Black women who want to make sure they are included in the upcoming Slut Walk that will be held in New York City for the first time. The Slut Walks originated in Toronto when a police officer suggested that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
So what was the response? Women got together and formed worldwide walks where they…uh…basically dressed up like sluts.
Fearing that they might be left out of the movement, some Black women are now pleading that their fellow sista-girls participate in this show of…man, I don’t know.
“We are deeply concerned. As Black women and girls we find no space in SlutWalk, no space for participation and to unequivocally denounce rape and sexual assault as we have experienced it. We are perplexed by the use of the term “slut” and by any implication that this word, much like the word “Ho” or the “N” word should be re-appropriated. The way in which we are perceived and what happens to us before, during and after sexual assault crosses the boundaries of our mode of dress. Much of this is tied to our particular history. In the United States, where slavery constructed Black female sexualities, Jim Crow kidnappings, rape and lynchings, gender misrepresentations, and more recently, where the Black female immigrant struggle combine, “slut” has different associations for Black women. We do not recognize ourselves nor do we see our lived experiences reflected within SlutWalk and especially not in its brand and its label.
[...]
Sisters from Toronto, rape and sexual assault is a radical weapon of oppression and we are in full agreement that it requires radical people and radical strategies to counter it. In that spirit, and because there is so much work to be done and great potential to do it together, we ask that the SlutWalk be even more radical and break from what has historically been the erasure of Black women and their particular needs, their struggles as well as their potential and contributions to feminist movements and all other movements.
Women in the United States are racially and ethnically diverse. Every tactic to gain civil and human rights must not only consult and consider women of color, but it must equally center all our experiences and our communities in the construction, launching, delivery and sustainment of that movement.
We ask that SlutWalk take critical steps to become cognizant of the histories of people of color and engage women of color in ways that respect culture, language and context.”
Someone over at madamenoire.com is also advocating that her fellow Black women get involved in this march.
“While I, too, have my concerns about a seeming lack of direct engagement of black women in the development of SlutWalk (particularly the domestic ones), I feel that sisters should go out and march tomorrow and we should actively participate in the movement in order to guarantee inclusion from within. The alternative would be starting our own marches and quite frankly, I don’t find that to be necessary this time around. If SlutWalk claims to represent the needs of women across cultural and socio-economic lines, let’s be there to ensure that it does with our presence.”
This inclusive stuff is getting way out of hand, and I am glad to see that there are not too many Black women (online at least) who are taking this as marching orders. But the fact that something like this is even being entertained is quite troubling.
The Huffington Post link above listed the following as co-signers of this call to Black women. I am going to repost those names below because I know that at some time this is going to come back and bite them.
Do you know how much we went through just to be seen as a “woman”?
And now you want to march with sluts?
Signed by: The Board of Directors and Board of Advisors, Black Women’s Blueprint | Farah Tanis, Co-Founder, Executive Director, Black Women’s Blueprint | Endorsed by: Toni M. Bond Leonard, President/CEO of Black Women for Reproductive Justice (BWRJ), Chicago, Illinois | Kelli Dorsey, Executive Director, Different Avenues, Washington, D.C. | S. Mandisa Moore | The Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, New Orleans, Louisiana | Black and Proud, Baton Rouge, Louisiana | Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts | Population and Development Program, Amherst, Massachusetts | Zeinab Eyega, New York, New York | Black Women’s Network, Los Angeles, California | League of Black Women, Chicago, Illinois | Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community, Minneapolis, Minnesota | Brooklyn Young Mother’s Collective, Brooklyn, New York | Women’s HIV Collaborative, New York, New York | National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA), Connecticut | Girls for Gender Equity, Brooklyn, New York | My Sister’s Keeper, Brooklyn, New York | The Mothers Agenda New York (the M.A.N.Y.), Brooklyn, New York | Sojourners Group For Women, Salt Lake City, Utah | Dr. Andreana Clay, Queer Black Feminist Blog, Oakland, California | Dr. Ida E. Jones, Historian, Author, The Heart of the Race Problem: The Life of Kelly Miller | Willi Coleman, Professor of Women’s History, member of the Association of Black Women Historians, Laura Rahman, Director, Broken Social Contracts, Atlanta, Georgia | Marlene McCurtis, Director, Wednesdays in Mississippi Film Project | Issa Rae, Producer, Director, Writer, Awkward Black Girl, Los Angeles, California | The Prison Birth Project| Ebony Noelle Golden, Creative Director, Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative & The RingShout for Reproductive Justice | Yvonne Moore, Southern California, Sexual Assault Survivor | Kola Boo, Novelist, Poet, Womanist | Jessicah A. Murrell, Spelman College C’11, Candidate for M.A. Women’s Studies | Shanika Thomas | Cathy Gillespie | Kristin Simpson, Brooklyn, New York | Mkali-Hashiki, Certified Sexological Bodyworker, Certified Sound, Voice, & Music Healing Practitioner, Owner & Operator of Body Ecstasy, Erotic Wellness Facilitation | Linda Mizell, Ed.D., Assistant Professor School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder| Sherley Accime, President, C.E.O. ANEW, NY, SeaElle Integrated Therapies | Diedre F. Houchen, M.A. Ed., Alumni Doctoral Fellow, Black Education, University of Florida | Hanalei Ramos, Co-founder, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment, NYC | Minh-Ha T. Pham, Cornell University Professor | Cynthia Nibbelink Worley (W.A.R., Women Against Rape) |Wendi Dragonfire, wendi-dragonfire.com | Sydney Kopp-Richardson Urban Policy Analysis M.A. Candidate, Milano the New School for Management and Public Policy Research Assistant, Social Justice Initiatives | Radha McAlpine | Desi K. Robinson, Executive Producer, Women in the Making: Tomorrow’s History Today | Laura E. Polk, Anthropologist, Washington, D.C. | Sfirah Madrone, Olympia, WA | AF3IRM | Rev. Raedorah C. Stewart, MA aka RevSisRaedorah, Queer Womanist Scholar Poet Mother | Jacqueline A. Gross, Oakland, CA | Devorah Hill, Media Educator, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, New York City | Elizabeth Lipton, Member, Pitzer College Feminist Coalition | Robin Morgan | Charlene Sayo, Member National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada | Elizabeth C. Yeampierre, Esq, Executive Director, UPROSE | Mandy Van Deven, Writer, Speaker, Changemaker | Wendy Ruiz | Hortensia Gooding, Vocalist, Administrator | Carol Griffin | Karynna A. Lynne, Lancaster Pennsylvania | Idrissa Simmonds, Writer and Educator | Ginnette Powell | Sydette Harry, Blackamazon, New York, NY | Susan Brison, Author, Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self | Yolanda M. Carrington, Activist, Durham, NC | Christine Barksdale, Owner – Sustainable Passion – Womencentric Erotic Boutique and Investigator, Ithaca Police Department | Taja Lindley, Colored Girls Hustle, Brooklyn, NY | Lisa “Chase” Patterson, CEO, Meridian Entertainment Publicity |
