When Are Black Men Going to Unify and Speak Out Against Sexism?
So when are black men going to unify amongst yourselves to fight oppression? Do you think black men will always be victims of white men? If so, why?
I still don't get all the anger and rancor some black men feel towards women. What do you want us to do? Not try to end sexism, not try to change things, just stay in our victim role? Until when? Until white men decide to end sexism? I just don't understand, I get the distinct impression from many black men that they feel they can't change their sexist behavior against women until white men either give them permission to or stop being sexist themselves.
I guess I don't understand what white men have to do with this. When talking to some black men, I have heard this insistence that they have no privilege in the United States because white men run everything and they are victimized by racism. Ok, so they do not have access to all aspects of male privilege but they do have access to many. It's like they are fixated on that point and can't move past it enough to see how black men act out in sexist ways against black women.
I have been told that some of the anger toward us from black men comes from when black women stand up with white women to protest sexism. Why the anger at that, when black women have been standing up and protesting racism since as long as we have been in this country? Have you ever heard of Ida B. Wells? She started the anti-lynch crusade during a time when they were hanging black men left and right, tarring and feathering black men left and right. Not only did she and other brave black women write to congress and publish lynching statistic in papers, they also let people in other countries know what was going on. Because of her anti-lynch crusade the lynching of black men stopped being a SPORT. That is just one woman, one example. I could give you many many more of black women who stood up and protested against what the white man does to black men. But when we stand up and protest not only what racist white men do to us but also what black men do to us, we got and still get mostly anger in return. Black men should be standing with us and fighting this issue with us, not against us and trying to make us stop ending this oppression.
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I still don't get all the anger and rancor some black men feel towards women. What do you want us to do? Not try to end sexism, not try to change things, just stay in our victim role? Until when? Until white men decide to end sexism? I just don't understand, I get the distinct impression from many black men that they feel they can't change their sexist behavior against women until white men either give them permission to or stop being sexist themselves.
I guess I don't understand what white men have to do with this. When talking to some black men, I have heard this insistence that they have no privilege in the United States because white men run everything and they are victimized by racism. Ok, so they do not have access to all aspects of male privilege but they do have access to many. It's like they are fixated on that point and can't move past it enough to see how black men act out in sexist ways against black women.
I have been told that some of the anger toward us from black men comes from when black women stand up with white women to protest sexism. Why the anger at that, when black women have been standing up and protesting racism since as long as we have been in this country? Have you ever heard of Ida B. Wells? She started the anti-lynch crusade during a time when they were hanging black men left and right, tarring and feathering black men left and right. Not only did she and other brave black women write to congress and publish lynching statistic in papers, they also let people in other countries know what was going on. Because of her anti-lynch crusade the lynching of black men stopped being a SPORT. That is just one woman, one example. I could give you many many more of black women who stood up and protested against what the white man does to black men. But when we stand up and protest not only what racist white men do to us but also what black men do to us, we got and still get mostly anger in return. Black men should be standing with us and fighting this issue with us, not against us and trying to make us stop ending this oppression.
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posted by Trula at
9:34 AM
2 Comments:
I don't know what rock you looked under to find the Black men you're referring to in this post. The idea of a Black man being offended by a Black woman protesting sexism with Caucasian women is preposterous. I inexcusably consent to the lack of visible support from Black men fighting sexism -- but just as you referred to Black women standing up for men, the same can be said vice versa.
Too many times, we find ourselves wanting a certain thing to happen at a certain time and when it doesn't, we generalize an entire group because of aforementioned failure. That is not a fair judgment. Whether the support is given from our peers or not, whether the sexism is battled on both fronts or not, when the Sun sets, there is no one to blame but the person in the mirror. As much as I agree that Black men should support Black women more, the fact remains that Blacks (male and female) must rely on their own stance and not evaporate from the issue(s) simply because someone didn't "have their back".
LOK what rock? Oh just about every single black message board I've been a member of online and just about every single black community group I've been a member in offline.
Good points though, thanks for commenting!
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