The Black Woman is another badass anthology (written similarly as This Bridge Called My Back) that explores what it means to be a black woman in Amerika by analyzing sexism and racism outside and within our radical communities of color.This anthology features contributions from Alice Walker,Nikki Giovanni,Audre Lorde,Abbey Lincoln,Paule Marshall and others who, through poems and stories, offer a remedy towards healing and self preservation for black women who have had enuf of the rainbow.
“When a white man “likes colored girls,” his woman (the white woman) is the last one he wants to know about it. Yet,seemingly,when a Negro “likes white girls,” his woman (the Black woman) is the first he wants to know about it. White female rejects and social misfits are fragrantly flaunted in our faces as the ultimate in feminine pulchritude. Our women are encouraged by our own men to strive to look and act as much like the white female image of beauty as possible, and only those who approach that “goal” in physical appearance and social behavior are acceptable. At best,we are made to feel we are poor imitations and excuses for white women.
Evil? Evil,you say? The Black woman is hurt,confused,frustrated,angry,resentful,frightened and evil! Who in this hell dares suggest that she should be otherwise? These attitudes only point up her perception of the situation and her health rejection of shame.
Maybe if our women get evil enough and angry enough, they’ll be moved to some action that will bring our men to their senses. There is one unalterable fact that too many of our men cannot seem to face.And that is, we “black,evil,ugly” women are perfect and accurate reflection of you “black,evil,ugly” men. Play hide and seek as long as you can and will,but your every rejection and abandonment of us is only a sorry testament of how thoroughly and carefully you have been blinded and brainwashed. And let it further be understood that when we refer to you we mean,ultimately,us. For you are us,and vice versa.
We are the women who were kidnapped and brought to this continent as slaves. We are the women who were raped,are still being raped, and our bastard children snatched from our breasts to be scattered to the winds to be lynched,castrated,de-egoed,robber,burned,and deceived.
We are the women whose strong and beautiful Black bodies were-and still are- being used as cheap labor force for Miss Anne’s kitchen and Mr.Charlie’s bed, whose rich,black,and warm milk nurtured-and still nurtures-the heir to the racist and evil slavemaster.
We are the women who dwell in the hell-hole ghettos are over the land.We are the women whose bodies are scarified,as living cadavers,to experimental surgery in the white man’s hospitals for the sake of white medicine.
We are the women who are invisible on the television and movies screens, on the Broadway stage. We are the women who are lusted after,sneered at,leered at,hissed at,yelled at,grabbed at,tracked down by white degenerates in our own pitiable,poverty-stricken,and pride-less neighborhoods.
We are the women whose hair is compulsively fried,whose skin is bleached,whose nose is “too big”,whose mouth is “too big and loud,” whose face is “too black and shiny,” and whose suffering and patience is too long and enduring to be believed.
Who’re just too damned much for everybody.
We are the women whose bars and recreation halls are invaded and flagrantly disrespectful,bigoted,simpering,amoral,emotionally unstable,outcast,maladjusted,nymphomaniacal,condescending white women…in desperate and untiring search of the “frothing-at-the-mouth-for-a-white-woman,strong-backed,sixty minute hot black.” Our men.
We are the women who,upon protesting this invasion of our privacy and sanctity and sanity, are called “jealous,” and “evil,” and “small-minded,” and “prejudiced.”
We are the women whose husbands and fathers and brothers and sons have been plagiarized,imitated,denied,and robbed of the fruits of their genius,and who consequently we see emasculated,jailed,lynched,driven mad, deprived,enraged,and made suicidal.
We are the women whom nobody,seemingly,cares about,who are made to feel inadequate,stupid and backward, and who inevitably have the most colossal inferiority complexes to be found.
And who is spreading this propaganda that “The only free people in this country are the white man and the Black woman?” If this be freedom,then Heaven is Hell.
Who will revere the Black Woman? Who will keep our neighborhoods safe for black innocent womanhood? Black womanhood is outraged and humiliated. Black womanhood cries for dignity ans restitution and salvation. Black womanhood wants and needs protection,and keeping,and holding.
Who will assuage her indignation? Who will keep her precious and pure? Who will glorify and proclaim her beautiful image?
To whom will she cry rape?”
(Source: blck-grrl, via obsidianelohim)
