I’m nominating this for worst picture on the internet. There’s a white person holding her leash & gee, a woman on a leash… I wonder what misogynist slur they’re trying to evoke here.
I’m nominating this for worst picture on the internet. There’s a white person holding her leash & gee, a woman on a leash… I wonder what misogynist slur they’re trying to evoke here.
The recent cultural reckoning over sexual assault and harassment has highlighted the dangers women face in workplaces throughout Hollywood, media organizations and in public office. The growing number of accusations has put a spotlight on high-profile men’s abuse of power, many times with white men being accused by white women. But what about stories from women of color?
Karen Attiah, The Washington Post’s global opinions editor, tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro the current conversation surrounding sexual harassment largely excludes women of color who are victims.
Attiah points to the numerous accusations against musical artist R. Kelly. The claims against the 50-year-old R&B singer span a number of years and range from illegal underage relationships, child pornography and most recently, holding women against their will.
“When these accusations against these powerful white men … came to light, it really again reminded me that we haven’t been talking about some of these figures who are in our popular culture that have been accused of preying on women for decades,” Attiah says.
She says a number of factors contribute to the apparent lack of national discussion about the R. Kelly accusations: His music has become a mainstay in black culture, many women accusing him aren’t high-profile or powerful celebrities – and many of those women are black.
“Part of it, unfortunately, has to do with whether or not we see black women and girls as worthy of care and worthy of protection,” Attiah says. “Unfortunately, it’s hard not to think that if his victims were wealthy white women, that we would be including R. Kelly in these conversations that we’re having right now about sexual abuse and exploitation.”
On conversations about accusations against R. Kelly within the black community
I mean, I hear of course both men and women who say you know what, “He’s gotta go, this guy is a monster, we can’t allow this to be happening.” And then I also just find this sense of, “Well, we need to wait for all the facts.” And so it’s kind of unfortunate to hear that from the black community. So it’s hard to kind of demand that the mainstream media and community stand up for the victims when it seems like the black community, our community, is not always willing to do that, ourselves.
On what happens when women of color do speak up about sexual harassment
You know, it’s really interesting because I think of Lupita Nyong’o’s New York Times article where she talks about her encounter with Harvey Weinstein, and it was one of the more moving and very well-written accounts of what it was like to have to deal with a man who was powerful yet charming yet fearsome. And it struck me that … it was her account that Weinstein or his team forcefully pushed back on. Not only is there a sense of we’re excluded from the narrative, but even when prominent members of our community are in the narrative, that we’re the ones whose stories are pushed back upon. We’re the ones who are lying.
On including more women in the #MeToo movement
I think one thing about the #MeToo movement, a lot of it has been seemingly confined to, I would say, white collar professional jobs. So, if we’re wanting to include more women, we need to also be talking about the abuses that go on in sectors like restaurant workers, domestic help … Because again, what ties all of this together, regardless of income, regardless of status, regardless of color, really, is about the abuse of power. So, women of color who already have harder barriers in those professional circles, I think we absolutely do need to pay more attention to their stories, and part of that will be for us to start listening and to start taking women of color seriously.
The recent cultural reckoning over sexual assault and harassment has highlighted the dangers women face in workplaces throughout Hollywood, media organizations and in public office. The growing number of accusations has put a spotlight on high-profile men’s abuse of power, many times with white men being accused by white women. But what about stories from women of color?
Karen Attiah, The Washington Post’s global opinions editor, tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro the current conversation surrounding sexual harassment largely excludes women of color who are victims.
Attiah points to the numerous accusations against musical artist R. Kelly. The claims against the 50-year-old R&B singer span a number of years and range from illegal underage relationships, child pornography and most recently, holding women against their will.
“When these accusations against these powerful white men … came to light, it really again reminded me that we haven’t been talking about some of these figures who are in our popular culture that have been accused of preying on women for decades,” Attiah says.
She says a number of factors contribute to the apparent lack of national discussion about the R. Kelly accusations: His music has become a mainstay in black culture, many women accusing him aren’t high-profile or powerful celebrities – and many of those women are black.
“Part of it, unfortunately, has to do with whether or not we see black women and girls as worthy of care and worthy of protection,” Attiah says. “Unfortunately, it’s hard not to think that if his victims were wealthy white women, that we would be including R. Kelly in these conversations that we’re having right now about sexual abuse and exploitation.”
On conversations about accusations against R. Kelly within the black community
I mean, I hear of course both men and women who say you know what, “He’s gotta go, this guy is a monster, we can’t allow this to be happening.” And then I also just find this sense of, “Well, we need to wait for all the facts.” And so it’s kind of unfortunate to hear that from the black community. So it’s hard to kind of demand that the mainstream media and community stand up for the victims when it seems like the black community, our community, is not always willing to do that, ourselves.
On what happens when women of color do speak up about sexual harassment
You know, it’s really interesting because I think of Lupita Nyong’o’s New York Times article where she talks about her encounter with Harvey Weinstein, and it was one of the more moving and very well-written accounts of what it was like to have to deal with a man who was powerful yet charming yet fearsome. And it struck me that … it was her account that Weinstein or his team forcefully pushed back on. Not only is there a sense of we’re excluded from the narrative, but even when prominent members of our community are in the narrative, that we’re the ones whose stories are pushed back upon. We’re the ones who are lying.
On including more women in the #MeToo movement
I think one thing about the #MeToo movement, a lot of it has been seemingly confined to, I would say, white collar professional jobs. So, if we’re wanting to include more women, we need to also be talking about the abuses that go on in sectors like restaurant workers, domestic help … Because again, what ties all of this together, regardless of income, regardless of status, regardless of color, really, is about the abuse of power. So, women of color who already have harder barriers in those professional circles, I think we absolutely do need to pay more attention to their stories, and part of that will be for us to start listening and to start taking women of color seriously.
stop comparing black women to males in general. black female slaves were forced to breed like fucking cattle to keep an ample supply of slave children available once importing slaves became illegal. the whole field of gynecology exists because of horrible experiments done on black female slaves’ bodies that ended up either killing them or severely crippling them. don’t ever open your stank ass mouth to compare a biological male to black women.
stop comparing black women to males in general. black female slaves were forced to breed like fucking cattle to keep an ample supply of slave children available once importing slaves became illegal. the whole field of gynecology exists because of horrible experiments done on black female slaves’ bodies that ended up either killing them or severely crippling them. don’t ever open your stank ass mouth to compare a biological male to black women.
Did you guys know about this? I had no idea. Here’s an article written by Jameelah Nasheed.
An excerpt:
In the late 18th century, new economic opportunities and growth led to an increasein the free African and African-American populations of New Orleans. This was because some people of African descent were newly able to make money, buy their freedom, and subsequently increase the free Black population. And with that came an increase in interracial relationships, to the dismay of colonial authorities. As Ze Winters notes in The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom, and Desire in the Black Transatlantic, “Charles III of Spain demanded that the colonial governor of Louisiana ‘establish public order and proper standards of morality,’ with specific reference to a ‘large class of ‘mulattos’ and particularly “mulatto’ women.”
During this time, women of African descent were known to wear their hair in elaborate styles (yes, we’ve been fly for centuries). By incorporating feathers and jewels into their hairstyles, they showcased the full magic and glory of their gravity-defying strands, and appeared wealthier than they actually were. As a result, these enticing styles attracted the attention of men—including white men.
To address this “problem,” in 1786, Spanish colonial Governor Don Esteban Miró enacted the Edict of Good Government, also referred to as the Tignon Laws, which “prohibited Creole women of color from displaying ‘excessive attention to dress’ in the streets of New Orleans.” Instead, they were forced to wear a tignon (scarf or handkerchief) over their hair to show that they belonged to the slave class, whether they were enslaved or not. In The Devil’s Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, historian Virginia M. Gould notes that Miró hoped the laws would control women “who had become too light skinned or who dressed too elegantly, or who competed too freely with white women for status and thus threatened the social order.”
In response to the laws, Creole women did cover their hair, but they did so with intricate fabrics and jewels (think Angela Bassett in American Horror Story as real-life New Orleans sorceress, Marie Laveau). As Baton Rouge curator Kathe Hambrick put it in a recent interview with The Advocate, “they owned it and made it a part of their fashion.” Instead of a cover-up, the wraps became a symbol style. And, of course, the women continued to attract men with their extravagant hairdos.
Celtyradfem 