When the question of “Why Aren’t Black People Outraged,” comes up from someone like Harry Belafonte whose activism and sense of community I deeply respect, says this in an impassioned speech while receiving the NAACP’s highest honor The Spingarn Medal; I…
When the question of “Why Aren’t Black People Outraged,” comes up from someone like Harry Belafonte whose activism and sense of community I deeply respect, says this in an impassioned speech while receiving the NAACP’s highest honor The Spingarn Medal; I…
This one goes out to the Rap, R&B entertainers and those who live and agree with the pictures they paint with their music of Black women and girls. If you feel that you’ve arrived when a Black Feminist responds, understand I’ll be brief, but here you go…
Black Feminist Remarks from the 2012 NYAAF Champion for Choice Awards
I am honored and humbled to receive this award from NYAAF. I receive it on behalf of the Black…
I am honored and humbled to receive this award from NYAAF. I receive it on behalf of the Black women and girls that contact you for resources for their abortions. However, I am disheartened by the lack of women of color present at this event tonight.
“I am a Black woman. Tall as a cypress. Strong beyond all definition. Still defying place, time and circumstance. Assailed. Impervious. Indestructible. Look on me and be renewed.” Mari Evans
I am honored that the New York Abortion Access Fund has granted me this honor. I accept this award in firm solidarity with the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi. Poor women and young women and their families are going to suffer. If this closing moves forward in 6 weeks we are going to find the women in the South facing a major crisis in access and resources to abortion services. When Black women were 13x’s more likely to die from an illegal abortion than white women pre-Roe, I am terrified. I know that women are desperate to make decisions and have the access to the resources we need to make decisions about our lives.
According to every statistic, disparity, social determinant and other quality of life measuring systems, it’s a miracle that I as a Black woman with an ancestral linkage to slavery in this country am even standing before you all holding any understanding of my dignity. The fight for abortion rights and access from my vantage point is inextricably linked to racial and economic justice both within the organizations and among the individuals who do the work and the larger systemic issues of poverty and the rights that it takes away. Like the right to our privacy, lives, ability to space our children, and the right to be free of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, I speak for the Black women and girls who want access to both our decisions and the resources to plan our family’s and to pay for our abortions.
I speak for Black women in the Reproductive Health, Rights, & Justice movements when I say equal treatment and investment of resources in our work has to change to reflect the value and quality of our work, when many of us are making and are offered little to nothing to do this work.
We sacrifice many things to fight and be present for our very ability to be relevant and exist in a way that we define as respectful. When the racist anti-choice billboards reared their ugly head it was traumatizing and heartbreaking to see black women’s decisions and access be used as a tool of propaganda to further the causes of patriarchal agendas. However ugly that campaign was and still is, it was through the strength of allyship and our collective movement that defeated the billboard campaign and shed light on how disrespectful and ridiculous it truly is.
The future of Black women’s activism on abortion is repealing HYDE at its 40th anniversary in 2016. How we build on the momentum of this moment will determine if we will allow poor women, women of color, young women, women in the military, immigrants and native women to be thrown under the bus, or if we are really the movement we say we are that is dedicated to equal access for ALL women. These next 3 years will determine if that is true.
Words that inspire my activism:
“If you are deaf, dumb and blind to what’s happening in the world, you’re under no obligation to do anything. But if you know what’s happening and you don’t do anything but sit on your ass, then you’re nothing but a punk.” Assata Shakur
I hope I’m not in the company of punks.
I am we. I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude. Huey P. Newton
The day is October 23, and the 2012 U.S. Presidential election is exactly 3 weeks away. On this same day, In 1947, the NAACP issued a formal petition against racism in America to…
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Mickalene Thomas,
Origin of the Universe 1, 2012,
Rhinestones, acrylic, oil, and enamel on wood panel, 48 x 60 inches, Collection of the Hudgins Family, New York, NY
This is so remarkably beautiful. I love Mickalene’s work and her expression of the beauty of our black womaness. The eye and intention of the artist completely impacts of the eye of the beholder.
(Pictured above: Members of Loyola University Chicago Empowering Sisterhood (LUCES))
I recently received an email from a young woman of color and a recent college graduate. She contacted me to ask if I could point her in the direction of women of color organizations in her area that are open to having volunteers, as the organizations she’s already contacted currently do not have any volunteer opportunities. She shared with me that, being a recent college graduate, Latina, and the first of her family to attend college, she has a passion to give back to her community and to empower others.
What heightened my interest in her email was that she mentioned that she was an active member of a women of color group on her college campus. She described the campus group as a multi-generational safe space for women of color on campus, which meets monthly. The monthly gathering, complete with food and fellowship, invites current students and staff to share experiences and advice over a chosen topic of the month (spiritual wellness, intellectual wellness, environmental wellness, among others.) Her group has also hosted a woman of color retreat on campus as well as a gala to recognize the many contributions of the women of color on campus.
I responded back to her, letting her know that I will look into women of color organizations in her area, but I also gave her the suggestion of creating a similar supportive group based on her campus group. Here in New York City, I am part of the New York City Reproductive Justice Coalition. We meet once a month to discuss what’s happening locally and nationally around reproductive justice and women and girls of color. What we’re currently doing every month sounds very similar to what her campus does: We connect, inform, enlighten, strategize, and fellowship.
The need for more spaces for women and girls of color to grow, connect, and be affirmed in a world that tell us that we’re in the minority is crucial. Instead of it being a matter of chance, women and girls of color spaces need to be a given, a space where women and girls of color are mentored and supported by peers who have their best interest in mind. In a perfect world, there would be no need for spaces like these. Until then, the more spaces we have that tell women and girls like us that we matter, the more likely we will be able to step up and pay it forward.
Are you interested in starting a space for women and girls of color in your community or on campus? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Our fight for dignity, respect and rights in employment is not new for women of color. Our long legacy as workers around issues such as overtime pay, minimum wage and fair labor practices dates back to the late 19th century. These battles were not fought to simply protect businesses and the public health of society rather it was connected to our experiences with gender, race and class in the workforce. Unfortunately, not much has changed.
For women of color, not having paid sick days violates our human rights to parent our children and take care of our family’s. In many families, women of color are the primary source of financial support. About 3 million African-American families with children have a female head of household most often a mother, grandmother, or other relative who is her family’s only source of support. The same is true for more than 2 million Latino families.
The female head of household, combined with the fact that nearly one-third of all Black and Hispanic women work in service occupations, can be a challenge in caring for our families. According to a groundbreaking report by Insight, Lifting As We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America’s Future, many of those are the least likely to include important benefits, only 39% of people working in service occupations receive any paid sick leave (in comparison to 57% of workers overall), only 52% receive any medical care benefits (in comparison to 74% of workers overall), and only 44% receive any retirement benefits (in comparison to 66% of workers overall). A 2011 Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) study based on surveys of 727 employers and 1,194 employees in San Francisco found that the effects were generally positive. Six out of seven employers reported no negative effects on profitability, and most said the new legislation had proven easy to implement. Given this, the question I have for Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn is, if paid sick days save businesses money, why is understanding this so hard for New York City?
Access to gaining wealth is an obstacle unique to women of color based on the types of employment or under-employment we’ve had access to and the racial and gendered wage gap. In reference to the Insight report, the income disparity is largest between white men and white women however; this is due to the fact that men and women of color have lower salaries than white men. Black and Hispanic women may earn 87% of their male counterparts, but single women have less than 1% as much wealth. Excluding vehicles, single black women have a median wealth of $100 and Hispanic women $120 respectively, while their same-race male counterparts have $7,900 and $9,730. The median wealth of single white women is $41,500. With so little money in reserve, we can’t afford to be sick or even have an appliance repaired without going in debt.
Historically, the types of employment women of color had access to was domestic services. Currently, health care, food service and retail are the industries where we are most likely employed, in that sense not much has changed. Access to gaining wealth is an obstacle unique to women of color based on the types of employment or under-employment we’ve had access to and the racial and gendered wage gap.
The advocacy efforts from coalitions like the Domestic Workers’ Movement and the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) have elevated the voices and concerns of women of color on issues of wages and fair treatment. The New York City Paid Sick Days coalition is leading the charge in advocating for the rights for all New York City workers. We as the workers most impacted by this legislation must do our part and sign the Petition to City Hall demanding they pass the Paid Sick Days legislation.
The decision to pass legislation for paid sick days on New York City is an investment in eliminating historical race, gender and class disparities. Improving the lives of workers that have the responsibility of caring for our families should not be held hostage within a political agenda that prioritizes the unfounded concerns of businesses. We must fight this issue from the standpoint of how it affects our lives and our families. Paid sick days will empower women of color to make healthy decisions about how to parent and care of our family’s as well as the ability to raise our family’s in a safe and sustainable environment. Simply put, workers have nothing to gain in harming large or small businesses, we need to be employed and paid a fair wage to care for our families. Women of color and our families have so much to lose if our human right in access to paid sick days is not upheld.
