Continental African Woman Hatin' On African American Women

These are the type of intramural family discussions within the Diaspora we like to normally keep in house and deal with.    But this bullshit was so foul it needs to be exposed  for the world to see..

An Ethiopian woman, akat042001 composed a YouTube video in which she ignorantly said some things about African American women that have started a firestorm of criticism aimed at her from across the Blackosphere.

It has jumpstarted a long needed discussion about the jacked up thoughts and misconceptions continental Africans have about their Western Hemisphere cousins and how those perceptions are indistinguishable from the 'unwoman' crap we hear spat at us by white conservafools.

Renee of Womanist Musings had some things to say in her post and a follow up one she wrote because the clueless youngling still doesn't get it. .     Now it's my turn.

First of all, we are very much aware of the hate directed at African Americans and sadly some of it comes come continental Africans.  In 2007 I pimp slapped one Kenneth Eng over an anti African American rant couched in the same ignorance you exhibited.


Akat42001, guess you forgot about the 400 years of negativity that was the slave trade and all the twisted theology, propaganda and bogus scientific theories that were used to justify enslaving our ancestors and demonize African Americans in the process.

And still we rise in spite of it.


African Americans are coming down on your ass because what you said in three videos isn't much different than the racist claptrap we hear spat at us by right wing conservafools, and you just keep digging a deeper  hole for yourself.    

Damn, where's the DROP Squad when you need them?

Your inaccurate assertion that 'Black women want to be Asian women' is woefully off the mark.  I submit that the reality is more like the sentiments Diana Ross expressed in an October 1989 ESSENCE magazine interview.

'I never considered it a disadvantage to be a Black woman. I never wanted to be anything else. We have brains. We are beautiful. We can do anything we set our minds to.'

Black women have done and are doing everything from serving as corporate moguls to the First Lady of the United States, and doing it with class, style, dignity and pride in our African heritage. 


I suggest you spend this Black History Month, the rest of 2011 and every year thereafter getting acquainted with Black history and the accomplishments of African American women because you have spent far too long in the suburbs being immersed in 'whiteness'. 

The bottom line is white supremacists don't care and aren't going to make the distinction between continental Africans and African Americans.   They hate 'errbody' with dark skin as the murder of your countryman Mulugeta Seraw by skinheads in Portland, OR back in the 90's should have made crystal clear to your colonized mind a long time ago.


But you keep on thinking you're 'better' than Black women and you're immune to the forces that we have to deal with here.   Reality will bite you in the behind soon enough.

The Man Couldn't Even Be Buried In Peace

I was more than a little pissed off to hear about the Wednesday beating death of prominent Ugandan GLBT activist David Kato.

It was even more distressing to hear that it occurred three weeks after a Ugandan court handed him and the local TBLG community a major victory by ordering the virulently anti gay Rolling Stone newspaper to cease and desist in their practice of posting the names, photos and addresses of GLBT people in the country because it was putting their lives in jeopardy.

About the only thing positive that came out of it was that it halted the UK's imminent deportation of a lesbian who had been living in Great Britain for eight years back to Uganda. 

Brenda Namigadde feared she would be killed if that happened and she had every right to feel that way.  She was told by the notorious homophobic Ugandan MP David Bahati, the author of the 'Kill The Gays' bill that seeks to impose the death penalty for homosexuality, to repent or be arrested on her return.   


But what angered me even further was reading about what happened at Kato's funeral in his ancestral hometown .

Anglican minister Thomas Musoke waited until the end of an emotional ceremony to grab the microphone and launch into a homophobic tirade that shocked the dozens of gay men and women as well as foreign diplomats in attendance.  A scuffle ensued and Musoke was eventually led away by the po-po's.

Damn, David Kato couldn't even be buried in peace.  

Pastor Musoke claimed in his tirade that the world had gone mad and even this new jack Pharisee has a point.

The world has most definitely gone mad when alleged religious people seem to think that their bigotry and hatred of TBLG people is justified by their holy book.   They must also be mad when they take it a step further in killing and depriving people they hate of their human rights because of who they love.  
 

It's Sade's Birthday!

Happy birthday to Helen Folasade Adu, known to the rest of the world as simply Sade.

Y'all know how much I love her music and wasn't letting today pass without at least doing some kind of shout out birthday post to her.

Black And Latina

We all know Black women are beautiful in all their shades from vanilla creme to darkest ebony.

That also applies to Latinas as well.   Contrary to the conventional beauty stereotype, Latinas also come in a wide variety of skin tones, shades and body builds as well.  

There are sistahs in our midst who we are increasingly becoming aware of who proudly claim both their African and Latina heritages.  

Former MTV VJ Alani 'La La' Vazquez and CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien have been vocal about claiming both.   Vazquez even kicked it up another level by writing an essay for Latina magazine that pointed out that being Black and Latina are not exclusive identities.

“A lot of people don’t realize that I’m Latina, which is fine. One thing about being Latina is that there isn’t one look that comes with the territory. I don’t expect people to know my cultural background just by glancing at me.  I do, however, expect that when I tell people my family is from Puerto Rico, that I will be believed and not accused of trying to be something that I’m not. It usually goes something like this: a person having a conversation with me discovers one way or another that I’m Puerto Rican and fluent in Spanish. That person then expresses their shock over these realizations for any number of reasons–common responses are, “You don’t look Latina” and “I thought you were black!” I never said I wasn’t black. And since when does being black and being Latina have to be mutually exclusive? 
Choreographer and actress Rosie Perez didn't surprise me either.   She's been associated with African American culture ever since her initial stint as the choreographer for the Fly Girls dance troupe on In Living Color and her role in Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing.  

Actress Zoe Saldana, Gina Torres, Lauren Velez from the 90's TV series New York Undercover, Tatyana M. Ali, singer Christina Milian and the late Cuban born Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz are some of the names that also appeared on the Latina magazine list as well. 


But some of the ladies who are on this Latina magazine list who have Afro Latina heritage did surprise me like journalist Gwendolyn Ifill, who is from Panama, Oprah Winfrey Network president Christina Norman, and the singer Kelis.

But it's past time for us to acknowledge that some of our beautiful sistahs are just as proud of their Latina heritage as they are of their African roots and not trip about it..

And I'm just as proud to claim them as well.