On Twitter: @j4guys
A special note before we begin:
While I am discussing the topic of Black Women generally and Black Feminists in particular, it must be understood that there are always and everywhere, notable exceptions. So if you happen to be a Black Woman who is NOT “like that”, by all means, relax and enjoy the ride; you’ve got nothing to worry about, and what I say will not affect you in the least.
If, on the other hand, you find yourself being “offended” in some way, always remember that old saw: the only b*tch that barks, is the one that got hit.
Much has happened over the past few weeks in the social media; among them, a second green-pea spewing session by Brittney “Professor Crunk” Cooper of Crunk Feminist Collective fame, demanding that Pres. Barack Obama either kick his nascent “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative to assist Black Men and boys to the curb, or to include Black Women and girls, because, you know, Obama doesn’t pander to Black Women anywhere near enough, dontcha know; and the #WomenAgainstFeminism Tumblr and Facebook campaign that’s starting to make quite a few waves on the Internet.
What do these two seemingly separate events have in common, you ask? Read on…
Professor Crunk’s “Argument”
First, let’s consider Prof. Cooper’s argument. Prof. Cooper’s premise is that Obama is somehow doing Black Women a grave disservice by focusing ANY attention toward Black Men and boys at all, because Black Women and girls have it oh-so-much-worse than said Black Men and boys.
But do the facts and the evidence, align with Prof. Cooper’s claims?
According to recent news reports, Black Women now supercede ALL racial and ethnic groups in American life in terms of higher education, going to university at rates outstripping EVERYONE ELSE. Black Women are, taken together as a group, the group of Women with thee highest levels of self-esteem on record. And there’s the numerous initiatives on the part of the Obama govt, that focused on Black Womens’ wellness and health concerns, including efforts by his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, and her “Let’s Move!” campaign to fight childhood obesity – an issue that greatly affects Black kids and Black Women (have you seen any pics of the good Prof? By all accounts she doesn’t look to be missing any meals). One final point – Pres. Obama has proven himself to be a huge friend not just to Women overall, but to Black Women in particular, and this can be seen in his passage of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, where Women’s “reproductive healthcare” needs will be funded by the taxpayer. This is important, because as everyone knows, Black Women avail themselves of “reproductive healthcare services” (read: abortions) much, much moreso, than anyone else in American life at this point.
By comparison, on all of these measures – education and health most notably, Black Men and boys have lagged considerably behind not just Black Women, but everyone else in American life – this, despite the fact that Black Women themselves have a strong hand in raising and “educating” Black boys in the form of being Baby Mamas to the tune of 70%-plus, and working in and/or running Black public and charter schools. Ahem.
Additionally, and unlike Black Women, Black Men are well documented to get significantly less social services support, to be homeless and un/underemployed and to encounter grisly incidents of police brutality – as recent events in New York City once again sadly illustrates, on a scale to which there is simply no real comparison that can be made, to Black Women.
Moreover, on the numerous occasions Obama has gone out of his way to upbraid Black Men on what he saw as their personal and even moral failings as not just dads but as Men, one is hardpressed to recall Prof. Cooper being so outraged; she seemed to be perfectly cool with Obama calling the Brothas out. Please note that Obama has yet to do the same with Black America’s Baby Mamas, of which there are Legion – indeed, if anything, he has had nothing but words of praise for Black America’s matriarchs.
So, what gives?
The Ms. Ann Syndrome
In order to fully understand the bee that got under Prof. Crunk’s bonnet, one has to understand a bit of very important history, one that to be frank hasn’t gotten quite the attention it deserves: that of Black Feminism.
The whole thrust behind Black Feminism is really about a cadre of Black Women who felt aggrieved because they weren’t being put up on a pedestal like their ostensible White sisters; you see, by the time Black Feminism really got its start a little over 40 years ago, White Feminism had been a steamroller, first gaining early victories at a time when Black Women couldn’t even vote, and then gaining even more victories on just about every front decades later. Black Women who made up the rank and file of what would become the Black Feminist movement were deeply insulted by all of this, and demanded that they be put on pedestals, too! Hence the birth of Intersectionality.
What Is Intersectionality?
The term was coined by Black Feminist Kimberle Williams Crenshaw back in 1989, and proposes to examine the multitudinal ways in which aspects of one’s identity can be discriminated against in a particular society – for example, a poor, disabled Black Woman. All of these “sub catergories” carry within them their own unique challenges and crosses to bear, and as such cannot nor should not be seen in isolation but rather in concert, for they all compound the “oppression”, you see. An interesting idea, and one that could yield much investigative fruit – but, you see, that was never the idea. As Prof. Crunk has proven in her most recent anti-Brotha rant, Intersectionality is for Black Women ONLY – a way for Black Feminists to claim Most Aggrieved Victim Status – which brings us back to Obama’s initiative:
You see, ANYTHING that someone of Obama’s stature does to question the idea or notion that the absolute worst thing to be in American life is a Black Woman, like putting into place a White House-driven policy initiative like My Brother’s Keeper, threatens to pull the curtain back on the Big Fat Lie that Prof. Cooper and her ilk have been trying to foist not just on Black America, but America as a whole, for decades now. They talk a mean game about how “intersectionality” includes and informs issues of Class, but whenever a Brotha actually seeks to discuss it within the context of supposed “Black Male Privilege” – pointing out the obvious, clear and present, in-your-face contradictions that arise from trying to apply such a concept to a simple straight up comparison between say, Pookie on the block and Oprah Winfrey, you find yourself either being shouted down for being an insensitive misogynist, or your point being trammeled under their Red Herring rhetoric. Of course, Class always has and always will color “concepts” like “(Black) Male Privilege”; indeed, in contemporary Black America, and perhaps for much of Black American history, Black Men as a group has never wielded or had access to power as it is understood in the American context; and Black Women, as a group, has never been powerless damsels in distress either. Today, it is entirely possible and common for Black Women to outclass large swaths of Black Men on a range of life measures – so the concept, on even the most basic levels of reason and evidence, falls flat on its face – this, is what Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper program threatens to expose. And this is how and why Prof. Crunk has been on the warpath.
The Sistaless #WomenAgainstFeminism Movement
As mentioned above, the social media campaign known as #WomenAgainstFeminism has been making some waves and making quite a ruckus – but as you spend a bit of time scanning its Tumblr page, past the dozens of pics of Women holding up signage explaining how and why they don’t need Feminism, one glaring fact leaps out at you:
There are precious few Black Women in attendance.
I mean sure, you’ll see a few Sistas there – and I mean a few. But overall, these are White Women doing the gruntwork, as is usual when it comes to anything substantive having to do with Women’s issues one way or another.
Why is this important?
Several reasons. First, you may recall my writings earlier this year on the “Handbags 4 Peace” issue – a local effort on the part of a Black Feminist activist type who “demanded” that “our Men” become human shields for her and other “strong, independent” Sistas getting gunned down in Philly’s underbelly after hours for their faux-designer pocketbooks. At the time I wrote the original piece, a series of very interesting events were taking place in Ukraine, which I then covered in a followup piece; here’s a clip:
“On the very day that the aforementioned column appeared on JFG, a very interesting story appeared on the New York Times website (H/T: Steve Sailer): “Growing Support & Tea From Young Women Embolden Kiev Street Fighters”. It was a piece covering the-then “Defenders of Maidan” – the ragtag group of ordinary Ukrainian Men who, with the aid of improvised melee weapons, helmets and body armor, successfully fought against the riot police and forced the ouster of the utterly corrupt Pres. Viktor Yanukovych. What was interesting about the piece, however, was the fact that the Women of Kiev were out in force, supporting their Men as they made what would amount to for some, their Last Stand against Yanukovych’s forces; young Ukrainian Women in their 20s, out there in the bitter cold (as much as 20 below!), serving hot tea and light refreshments to the “Defenders” and boosting their morale. Several of the ladies quoted in the piece had made it very clear how so very proud of their Men they were, and fully intended to marry a number of them as soon as possible…
Something else the Sistas might want to consider as they read about the Ladies of Maidan: note how none of them came anywhere close to what’s on offer over here; Ms. Sanchez herself is a 40 year-old Baby Mama, “demanding” that “her Men” “protect her” – and as I’ve pointed out in my recent column “Why Should Black Men Get Married?”, she is by no means unique. Black American Women, NOT all, but taken together as a group and in the aggregate, seem to take delight in being as loosey-goosey as humanly possible, “exploring themselves” and everyone else like she was Dora the Explorer or something, welping several babies out of wedlock by several different Baby Daddies, Twerkin’ up a storm in every public place imaginable, and then has the gall and nerve to “demand” that they be treated like a Lady and that the Plan B Tyrones of the world now be their human shields – you have got to be freakin’ kiddin’ me(!). Must we compare and contrast them, to the Ladies of the Ukraine?
Really?”
Why are the above quotes important? Because what the #WomenAgainstFeminism campaign is really showing you, is a classic maxim from the world of Game, slightly modified:
Don’t listen to what WHITE Women say; watch what WHITE Women DO.
You see, White Women talk a mean game, heh, about “I am Woman, hear me roar” – but they understand what side of the bread their butter is on; and when the deal goes down, they are quick to cleave to their Men.
Here’s another clip illustrating exactly what I mean, from Mr. Bill F. Price’s excellent website The Spearhead, in a recent piece he wrote on the #WomenAgainstFeminism movement:
“Now, with the millennials, we are seeing a generation of largely impoverished young men. Millennial girls are looking at what life is like for most of their peers and thinking “if you feminists don’t want a man, that’s fine, but I do, so I’m no feminist.” But what use could a man possibly be if he has no money to speak of? Only someone who has never lived with a woman could find that one hard to answer. A healthy young man with no money can drive, carry things, fix things, protect his mate, solve problems, save money, do chores — the list goes on. And when he gets a job, he will pay his way and do all these things, even if he makes less than his girlfriend. It’s a much, much better deal for a woman than a female roommate. Add to this the fact that most pink-collar jobs are low-wage service jobs, and having a man around who contributes anything at all is mighty helpful for the typical young woman
What created this “independent woman” myth was the great prosperity of the baby boomer era, which lasted from roughly the mid 60s to the mid 2000s. Men abounded, and they were flush with cash. Businesses could afford to hire superfluous cute girls and give them nice salaries. Family courts could rob men blind and they’d still have enough left over for a reasonable lifestyle and a chance to start over. Men were harvesting the fat of the land, and there was more than enough to go around. My blue-collar father bought a house on Capitol Hill in Seattle when he was in his mid 20s. Today, that same house would sell for about a million dollars — even a well-compensated professional would have a hard time affording it.
Things have changed. Young men’s status is markedly lower, so there’s a lot less left over for young women, who are working harder than their mothers and getting less in return. Most young mothers need state assistance merely to give birth (actually, about half of all mothers need it today), which proves that young women are not exactly making money hand over fist themselves. When you’re poor, life is a lot easier if you can share with someone, and nobody shares more with girls than boys. So merely finding a man to share burdens is a considerable relief to young women. Is a feminist going to fix a car, carry a TV upstairs or take her to the hospital to give birth? Will the feminist voluntarily share any of what she earns with the young woman? Yeah, right…”
Let’s follow the above quotes by Mr. Price with a few of my own, late last year on the matter of how White Women know which end is up, shall we?
Roll it:
“I can personally attest to this. Last year – the same month that Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, in fact – I joined the local town watch. At the meetings for the watch, I found, much to my dismay, that out of upwards of 50 people in attendance – most of them White, most of them female – that I was one of less than five Black males in the room. To add insult to injury, I was the only one among the Black males who was under the age of 49 (see above); the other two were over that. This, in a neighborhood that was over half Black, and where all the crime being committed was by Black males. Take a wild guess who you think sired those Nino Browns in the making? Tyrone or Mr. Big?
The two main organizers of the watch – both White, single, middle aged Women of the “riot grrl feminist” variety – made no bones about why they were so glad that they had some Black Men, and me, since I was younger, in particular, involved: “Obsidian, we’ve been out here on the streets and it is clear that we can’t do a damned thing about what’s going on. We’re scared to death and these young boys know it. We need Men – Black Men especially – to straighten this out.” When I asked them about how what they said jibed with their openly Feminist beliefs, their response was, that they were Feminist, not stupid. White Women may talk a mean game about all that “I am Woman, hear me roar” stuff, but when the rubber hits the road, like Bill Maher said, you want a Man to go see about that bump in the night you just heard.”
And, just for kicks, here’s what Ms. Janet “JudgyBitch” Bloomfield had to say in response to the good professor herself, earlier this year:
“There is no failure to imagine the struggles of black men and women are linked. You are just profoundly misunderstanding the linkages. Black men are hounded from schools that do not capture their talents, interests or abilities. They are thrown into a labor market that offers few opportunities and incarcerated at phenomenal rates to make labor force participation even more difficult. The broader culture both vilifies and exploits them, encouraging fractured families and single parenthood. That leaves black women holding the bag, raising children alone with few choices but to perform the labor white women need…
The black community is no different than any other community. If you put the needs of men and boys at the very forefront of every social justice project you undertake, at the center of all your discourse, at the very heart of your community, you stand a chance. You will face dire opposition from a larger culture that can’t function without the slave labor of black women. The pressures on black men to abandon their children will intensify, up to and including even greater rates of incarceration and disenfranchisement. The glorification of violence and criminality will intensify. The gentrification of neighborhoods and segregation of school districts will intensify. The more the black community works to elevate men specifically, the more strenuously white culture will intervene to prevent that from happening.
It’s not black men walking across “this bridge called your backs”. It’s white women. When you embrace feminist ideas like “the patriarchy” and “equality”, you play right into their hands. Black men are not your enemy.
They are your hope.
Your only hope.”
Do you see a pattern here? WHITE WOMEN AREN’T STUPID. They know and understand that their very survival depends on White Men. Feminism was one huge Sh*t Test, but when sh*t gets real – as it increasingly is during this time of the Greatest Depression - White Women get their relatively flatter behinds in gear and get with the program; they realize that having a White Man around is much, much better than having NO Man around. Now, let’s compare and contrast that to American Black Women, who are the ONLY Women on planet Earth, who not only makes the case for “not needing no Man” but has built up an entire cottage industry around that ridiculously whacked notion – and then has the gall to be arsed-up when anyone else notices it(!). As I said in my previous “Handbags” piece, not even Black Women from Africa say silly stuff like that, and they have very real problems to deal with. ONLY American Black Women say silly stuff like “I can’t support Eric Garner because Black Men don’t support me” – can you even imagine a White Woman saying something like that?
Really?
The Fracture, Failure & Fraud, That Is Black Feminism
At this point, what more can or should be said, right? I mean, Black Feminism was DOA from the get-go, and it really is a wonder that it was able to get over for this long on as large a number of people. But, as it always does, Time has a way of separating the wheat from the chaff, and great ideas soldier on, while BSery bites the dust. Such is the case with Black Feminism.
At a time when there is real debate among White Women about the utility of an ideology they themselves created, Black Feminists cling to their BS “theories” like the proverbial liferaft and attack any and everyone who dares to question any part of their tortured “narrative” – and are increasingly becoming irrelevant. As recent studies show, fewer American Women identify as Feminists than at any other point in American history, and there’s even a new catergory – Antifeminists, which is growing in size. Now, consider the fact that the among the last of the hardcore ideological holdouts, are Black Women themselves – and then ask yourselves, what has their ideology gotten them? Has it gotten them more marriages, or even stable relationships? Has it gotten them better, healthier, well-behaved, bright and energetic and productive children? Has it improved their financial standing? What about their health outcomes – has Black Feminism played a role in that, for better or for worse?
Black Feminism came along at the same time that the Great Society, the Sexual Revolution, and of course, the “second wave” of the White Women’s movement – and it is a documented fact that Black Women, in many, many ways, are WORSE off today, than they were five decades back. They’re notably heavier, disease and STD-ridden, ill-tempered, promiscuous; uncouth, violent, and more often than not, Crummy Mummies. Unlike White Feminism, which can point to real and needed gains they fought for, Black Feminism cannot account for ONE good thing it has brought the Black community, while anyone with one good eye can point to a plethora of ruinous, death-by-a-thousand-cuts things it has brought to that same Black community – starting with the mantra “I don’t need no Man!”, and it’s sisters:
“I can do bad all by myself!”
“I’m a strong, independent Black Woman!”
“Pack your sh*t and get the f*ck out!”
And so on.
As Ms. Bloomfield so rightly points out, not only did White Feminists ever intended to include Black Women into its ranks – other than as cannon fodder and toilet bowl scrubbers – they hold no compunctions in the least about throwing Black Women under the bus if and when they had to. Least we forget about last Summer’s Big Kerfuffle, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, which got its start by Black Feminist Mikki Kendall raising a ruckus over the fact that White Feminists ran interference for the disgraced Prof. Hugo Schwyzer? Must we recall the grand lessons of history, of how Black Feminist Audre’ Lourde was so roundly dissed by her supposedly erstwhile White sisters back in the day?
Black Women of the ilk that make up the ranks of the Black Feminist movement swear up and down that they Ms. Ann, when the Real Ms. Anns remind them every day and every night, that they are most assuredly NOT.
Speaking of Mikki Kendall, what has she been up to since all the publicity she got last Summer? Has she been able to parlay all that grievance into anything substantive? Your correspondent has deigned to find out. Since last Summer, Ms. Kendall has founded a website called Hood Feminism (catchy!) with an attendant YouTube channel - both shot through with more of the same woe-is-me Most Favored Victim Status For Black Women tripe. Their commenter counts and site hits, the number of YouTube views and subscribers, are in the basement levels. Not even their core audience – which are supposedly Black Women themselves – pay them any attention.
And as for the outfit For Harriet, again, see the comments on their ridiculous anti-Eric Garner screed for yourself – even Black Women can be seen calling out the Coonery for what it is – Coonery. And Buffoonery. In extremis. And the only reason I can see as to why Prof. Cooper still has a gig at Salon is because her stuff generates some really great angry clickbait – keep in mind please, that this is Salon.com we’re talking about here – one of the bastions of Leftward Think online – not some cat’s paw for the Right. Cooper routinely makes her readers irate with the sheer level of ridiculousness she manages to come up with every week or so.
Of course, there are real issues that Black Feminists could be addressing themselves to, but if they did that they wouldn’t have any reason to continue to exist in their present form, to say nothing of actually too much like doing right.
And so the Black Feminist “movement” will stagger on: increasingly shrill, irrelevant, ugly…and alone.
As it should be.
Now adjourn your arses…
The Obsidian
@ObsidianFiles on Twitter
Email: theobsidianfiles@hotmail.com
