Why do we hate Black Women so much?
By: Hadji Williams
Somewhere between the 24/7/365 coverage of white women
like Laci Peterson, Martha Stewart, and shows like BET
UN:CUT something dawned on me: We hate black women.
We hate black women so much that when someone kills a
black woman it barely makes the local news, nevermind
the national news. We hate black women so much that
if a black woman goes missing, we never look for them.
(They are called Amber Alerts and Megan's Law and not
Lakeesha Alerts or Shanita's Law for a reason.)
In fact, the only time we ever look for black women is
when we're casting for strippers, babymammas, hoes,
b****es, cockteasing gold-diggers,
magical-negro-enabler-for-their-white-friends,
attitude-filled caricatures. And even then, that
black woman had better not be too dark or too thick or
her big black butt won't be working too much.
We hate black women so much that we refuse to even get
outraged over the fact that 50% of all new AIDS cases
in America are among Black women. We hate black women
so much that when they get pregnant, we blame them, as
if they all made withdrawals from the local sperm
bank. We hate black women so much that we rationalize
slurs like b***h and ho at almost every opportunity.
We hate black women so much that when it comes to
beauty standards, the feminist movements, women's
rights and health, we still subjugate Black Women to
the perspectives and paradigms of White Women and gay
white men (and to an increasing degree Hispanic Women)
Yep, we truly hate black women.
Now when I say we of course I mean White America the
only black women they seem to even acknowledge are:
Oprah, Condoleeza Rice, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys,
Star Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Angelou, and Robin
Quivers (Howard Stern's sidekick). But when I say we
I also mean the hip-hop community, Black men and Black
America at large. Whether we like it or not, WE may
well be among the biggest Black Women haters of all.
Just look at our actions: We're the ones who
ignore/defend the misogyny in our own communities.
We're the ones who've been covering up the endless
domestic abuse and the man-sharing/random sex partners
for generations. (I wouldn't be surprised if our
hatred of black women has factored into the AIDS
epidemic. After all, it's just Black Women catching
it, so who cares about increasing treatment and
changing behavior, right?)
We're the ones who accept leaving black women alone to
raise the kids that we helped them create. We're the
ones who defend treating black women like products and
sex objects in the videos and on the street corners of
our communities. We're the ones who defend
interracial relationships as being the product of
black women driving black men to women outside the
community. We're the ones who chase all the standards
of womanhood that the larger society says we should.
I think we accept and defend the misogyny in hip-hop
because, on one level or another, we believe that
black women (at least most of em) deserve it. It's
just understood that when emcees talk about b****es
and hoes, they're talking about Black women as b****es
and hoes. That's why you don't hear much outrage from
mainstream women's groups like N.O.W., Independent
Women's forum, etc. because they know this misogyny
isn't implicitly directed at white women except maybe
if Eminem says it.
And of course he's proven that he's not above calling
black women b****es and n****rs every now and then.
(In fact, looking back, I think the main reason so
many of us forgave Eminem's black b*****s/ni****rs was
because Eminem was only saying what most of us already
think about Black Women.) And we accept the
institution of pimping because it's inherently built
on degrading and commoditizing Black women; and of
course, black women deserve what they get right?
There's so much hatred of black women, not only in
America, but also in countless other countries around
the world. You see it in the double standards for
access to healthcare, representation in government and
businesses, etc. But mostly you see it in the way we
treat Black women and in the way we allow others to
treat and portray Black women. When you put all this
together, the answer is simple:
America, Black America and Hiphop included simply
hates Black Women. And personally, I'm sick and tired
of waiting for white folks to stop it or to solve it.
(As they've proven time and time again, they don't do
anything for black folks unless they can control it or
profit from it, or unless they feel like they don't
have a choice.) Nope, My goal for 2005 and beyond is
to finally get answers to two questions:
(1) When are we as a community going to acknowledge
this hatred?
(2) What are we as individuals and as communities
going to do to stop this hatred?
Hadji Williams is author of the new book, KNOCK THE
HUSTLE: HOW TO SAVE YOUR JOB AND YOUR LIFE FROM
CORPORATE AMERICA, hiphop's first success guide for
business, culture and life. Email him:
author@knockthehustle.com and get free excerpts, order
info, etc. at:
www.knockthehustle.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let me finish reading but I will be back to discuss this. The first paragraph had me hooked so I had to print it out to read and highlight.
ETA: SORRY did not realize he had the B and N word in his article.
Why Do We HATE Black Women So Much
It's OUR fault...(rolleyes)
Linear Mode
