![]() |
The Strong Black Woman is Dead
The Strong Black Woman is Dead...
>While struggling with the reality of being a human instead of a myth, the >strong black woman passed away. Medical sources say she died of natural >causes, but those who knew her know she died from being silent when she >should have been screaming, milling when she should have been raging, from >being sick and not wanting anyone to know because her pain might >inconvenience them. > >She died from an overdose of other people clinging to her when she didn't >even have energy for herself. She died from loving men who didn't love >themselves and could only offer her a crippled reflection. She died from >raising children alone and for not being able to do a complete job. > >She died from the lies her grandmother told her mother and her mother told >her about life, men & racism. She died from being sexually abused as a child >and having to take that truth everywhere she went every day of her life, >exchanging the humiliation for guilt and back again. > >She died from being battered by someone who claimed to love her and she >allowed the battering to go on to show she loved him too. She died from >asphyxiation, coughing up blood from secrets she kept trying to burn away >instead of allowing her the kind of nervous breakdown she was >entitled to, but only white girls could afford. > >She died from being responsible, because she was the last rung on the ladder >and there was no one under her she could dump on. > >The strong black woman is dead. > >She died from the multiple births of children she never really wanted but >was forced to have by the strangling morality of those around her. > >She died from being a mother at 15 and a grandmother at 30 and an ancestor >at 45. She died from being dragged down and sat upon by UN-evolved women >posing as sisters. > >She died from pretending the life she was living was a Kodak moment instead >of a 20th century, post-slavery nightmare! She died from tolerating Mr. >Pitiful, just to have a man around the house. > >She died from lack of orgasms because she never learned what made her body >happy and no one took the time to teach her and sometimes, when she found >arms that were tender, she died because they belonged to the same gender. > >She died from sacrificing herself for everybody and everything when what she >really wanted to do was be a singer, a dancer, or some magnificent other. > >She died from lies of omission because she didn't want to bring the black >man down. She died from race memories of being snatched and raped and >snatched and sold and snatched and bred and snatched and whipped and >snatched and worked to death. > >She died from tributes from her counterparts who should have been matching >her efforts instead of showering her with dead words and empty songs. > >She died from myths that would not allow her to show weakness without being >chastised by the lazy and hazy. > >She died from hiding her real feelings until they became hard and bitter >enough to invade her womb and breasts like angry tumors. > >She died from always lifting something from heavy boxes to refrigerators. > >The strong black woman is dead. > >She died from the punishments received from being honest about life, racism >& men. She died from being called a bitch for being verbal, a dyke for being >assertive and a whore for picking her own lovers. She died from never being >enough of what men wanted, or being too much for the men she wanted. > >She died from being too black and died again for not being black enough. > >She died from castration every time somebody thought of her as only a woman, >or treated her like less than a man. > >She died from being misinformed about her mind, her body & the extent of her >royal capabilities. She died from knees pressed too close together because >respect was never part of the foreplay that was being shoved at her. > >She died from loneliness in birthing rooms and aloneness in abortion >centers. She died of shock in courtrooms where she sat, alone, watching her >children being legally lynched. > >She died in bathrooms with her veins busting open with self-hatred and >neglect. She died in her mind, fighting life racism, & men, while her body >was carted away and stashed in a human warehouse for the spiritually >mutilated. > >And sometimes when she refused to die, when she just refused to give in she >was killed by the lethal images of blonde hair, blue eyes and flat butts, >rejected by the O.J.'s, the Quincy's, & the Poitiers. Sometimes, she was >stomped to death by racism & sexism, executed by hi-tech ignorance while she >carried the family in her belly, the community on her head, and the race on >her back! > >The strong silent, talking black woman is dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > >Or is she still alive and kicking?????????????? > >I know I am still here. > >Author Unknown |
This was on Michael Baideson's radio show about three weeks ago and the girl who claims she wrote is is sixteen. I hope she gets her props and just due for this wonderful peace of work.
|
That was wonderful piece of work. I'm saving it to my computer now.
|
About two years ago, the Black Movements Dance Theatre at Georgetown University did an amazing piece in which they danced while this poem was being read -- no music. It was great, and really fit the theme of the evening.
|
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:52 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.