To the BeyondBlackWhite Writers...pt. 1

Where do I start. A great teacher told me, learning takes place in space of agreement and disagreement. When you are defensive, nothing can be learned. I posted recently about the chick over at beyondblackwhite.com who wrote an article about the "natural allies" of black women. I stated my peace on this already so I wont go into this again. However, as a social scientist I had to run a quick test on the validity of Toni_M and her minion's arguments. My roommate writing under antionetteAH was attacked when she opposed this argument, and was even told to leave the blog. I wrote under ProfJamesP, restating her argument, completely agreeing with her, and disagreeing with them. Brenda55 liked my comment and the writer Toni_M didn't even bother to touch it...the only difference. I was a white man. Can we say..Damaged beyond repair. Here are the comments. This will be one of a few posts. (Btw...if you want to read the article it is under my post Know thyself Dammit)

antoinetteAH  

I completely disagree with this post. For one, black women must see that black women are our "best natural allies," as no other group has the experiences of being black women. I look at the examples listed above (i.e."Slavery was once legal in the United States. Who enacted laws that freed those black slaves? Answer: White men") and I cannot help but feel slight rage at this declaration. Granted, yes, some white president signed some papers stating that blacks were "free", yet we still struggle to survive in a system that was designed for us, black people, to fail. To make statements like that greatly misrepresents and ignores the struggles behind the simple (and I do mean simple) process of signing papers and declaring someone "free" in all aspects, and I think it is imperative to research the incentives behind such actions. 

In a time where people would like to think that we live in a post-racial society, it is important to acknowledge the great disparities amongst black people in comparison to whites, including healthcare, education, abortion rates, and poverty. If you look into history, and not just American history but all over the globe, black women have participated in numerous rebellions in which have allowed us to be able to create forums like this today. *I am not saying that "white men can't be trusted," or anything of that nature, but when you don't know your own history, how can you expect others to, and ultimately be for your movement? 

History expands greater than what is written in any textbook, and we, black women, must take it upon ourselves to research, learn, and educate one another so that we get to a point where we're not "dependent" upon anyone's status (that being someone else's definition and not our own) or so-called "protection." I also encourage people to look into the effects of slavery, as we tend to think this has no effect on our modern existence, when 400+ years of bondage (physically and mentally) has greatly influenced the mentality of black people today along with media outlets that are often not controlled by black people. Check out Dr. Joyce Degruy's lecture on Post-traumatic-slave syndrome