In 2006, an organization called Black Girls Rock came into being. It is, in its own words, a non-profit youth empowerment and mentoring organization established to promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media.
Who in their right minds can be opposed to this?
On Sunday, November 3rd, Black Girls Rock had their yearly television variety/awards/ceremony show...and white girls went nuts. It was racist. It was exclusive. It was mean. It was racist, racist, racist (Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!). The internet exploded with #whitegirlsrock blowback.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?????????????
Here's the truth, white girls/white women, straight from one of your own ~ you just didn't like not being the center of attention. The fact that another group might need something of their own never entered your mind, did it? Because you/we are supposed to be the center of the goddamn universe and anything that excludes is bad. But you know what? Some things just aren't about us.
I remember years ago, Take Your Daughter to Work Day was a thing. It was a necessary and important thing because until then, daughters could grow up to be nurses, elementary school teachers, librarians, or secretaries and that was really it, if she wanted or needed to be more than a wife and mother. We ~ as a society and as girls ~ had no idea that our daughters could be anything else. Not really. So this movement came along to show us we could be pilots and garbage collectors and deans and construction workers and doctors and, and, and... And before too long, it was decided that Take Your Daughter to Work Day was too exclusive and it should be Take Your Child to Work Day, so the boys didn't feel left out. Those boys who had known all along they could be anything they wanted to be. To this day, girls can be anything they want ~ in theory, whereas boys can be anything they want ~ in fact.
This is exactly what the #whitegirlsrock girls/women just pulled. That shit, up there. White women don't need to be reminded that the color of their skin can be beautiful. Or that their race doesn't need to hold them back. Or that they aren't less than other members of their gender because of the way they look. It's called white privilege and we have it. Racism flows down the power structure, not up.
We have role models. We have women standing up with and for us. We see ourselves portrayed on television and movies and stages every damn day a bazillion times over. As out of balance as the gender issue still is ~ and you know I know it is ~ white women are even far more likely to show up in board rooms and on committees than women of color.
Girls of color need to see themselves. Need to hear stories of success. Need to be allowed to see reality in their dreams. Need to be told they are nowhere near less-than, just because of the color of their skin. They are not just maids, or prostitutes, or gold diggers, or angry black women, or any of the other stereotypes they are bombarded with every day. And who's going to pass this lesson along? Me? A white woman, with all my privilege? Really? Because we've done so well so far assuring girls of color we believe in them and support them and see them as our equals. So, women of color are stepping up. In many ways, including #blackgirlsrock.
And we couldn't let them have it. We couldn't allow them to have something that wasn't about us. We couldn't stand to not be the center of attention. We couldn't be a part of lifting someone else up without feeling like we had lost something of our own. That's some pretty fucked up shit right there. White girls, get over yourself already, because black girls rock.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
0 comments:
Post a Comment