Sharice Davids Wins Kansas 3rd District Dem Congressional Primary!

This 2018 election cycle is shaping up as one in which Native American women will make potentially historic gains if things break right for them on November 6. 

Paulette Jordan captured the Democratic nomination for Idaho governor.  In New Mexico Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat by double digits back in June, and she is favored to win in the general election.

Now in Kansas we have Sharice Davids, who knocked off a Bernie backed candidate that he and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez controversially came west to campaign for.

Davids beat Brent Welder by over 2000 votes in the Kansas 3rd District race to capture the nomination.

Hillary Clinton won this district in 2016 by a single point over Trump 47%-46%

Davids will face off against incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder (R), a House Appropriations Committee member who has held this seat since 2011.   Yoder won his GOP primary race with only 68% of the vote after casting votes for Obamacare repeal and the steep GOP tax cuts.

That primary performance was noted by the esteemed Cook Political Report, who moved this KS-3 race from Lean R into the Toss Up category

This is another race in which a woman has beaten a male candidate on the Democratic side, and now Davids gets a shot at sending Yoder back to Kansas while making some electoral history of her own.

If she wins on November 6, she would become one of two Native American women elected to Congress.

Here's hoping that happens for her in 91 days. 
 

International Women's Day Includes Trans Women, Too!

Today is International Women's Day, which is celebrated every March 8.

The UN sponsored iteration of the day dates back to 1977, but the day's history goes back to 1909.

This year's theme is 'Equality For Women Is Progress For All', and equality and progress for women includes trans women in that mix as well.

Anti-trans feminine discrimination and violence basically has its roots in the same systemic anti-woman attitudes and anti-women violence that has historically plagued women on our planet.

And we trans women aren't immune to that.   Ours just comes with a heaping helping of transphobia on top of it along with the refusal to realize what we and medical science already knows in terms of  that trans women are women.

Medical science is increasingly making that point for us along with shifting cultural attitudes and the realization that the trans rights movement is an international human rights one..

But as we celebrate this 2015 edition of International Women's Day in Trans World, while we celebrate the fact that we have trans women running for political office in Britain, have trans parliamentarians in Belgium and Poland, trans feminine models rocking runways from New York to Milan, one who performed on the hallowed stage of Carnegie Hall, another who scored a groundbreaking legal win in Kenya., others who will grace movie and our television screens commenting on various issues inside and outside the trans community, we have trans women around the world who are not experiencing that same level of progress.

In many parts of the world, trans human rights progress is occurring at a glacial pace, if at all.

We still have far too many around the world that experience crushing discrimination that leads them to engage in survival sex work to pay the bills.  

And far too many of our sisters are being killed for simply trying to live their trans feminine lives in the United States, Latin and Central America, Brazil and Turkey.

And those are the trans murders we are aware of.

We have the Canadian Conservative led government that since 2013 has been stalling passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill as various Republican state led jurisdictions are trying to pass laws that dehumanize trans people and allow discrimination against them for their own selfish political gain.

And now that the US right wing is losing on the gay marriage issue, they now are starting to attack the humanity of trans people as their ticket to political power, fame and fortune and legitimacy in conservative political circles.

I wrote this last paragraph in a post penned for the 2012 edition of International Women's Day, and it still applies two years later as to where trans women fit into this day..

While we are fighting to overcome the transphobic hatred and disinformation aimed at us, we also seek to continue discussions with our cis sisters as to where trans women fit in the grand scheme of womanhood.  We're more than willing to do our part to help uplift all women cis and trans around the globe if we're respectfully given an opportunity to do so. 

And we're ready to handle our feminine human rights business if that respectful invitation comes.
 
International Women's Day also includes the issues that impact and ail trans feminine women across Planet Earth . Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.

Malala's Very Happy Birthday

Malala Yousafzai's 16th birthday was on July 12 and it was one the Taliban tried to prevent her from seeing.

Thankfully for her family and the world they failed.

They attempted to assassinate the award winning Pakistani teen activist who advocates for children's education and women's rights on October 9, 2012.  

But she survived it, is now living in the UK with her family and has become an even bigger and well respected voice for those issues and women's rights and is now the youngest person to ever be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In honor of Malala, her 16th birthday was designated by the United Nations and UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon as Malala Day. as she celebrated it with her first public speech since the cowardly Taliban terrorist tried to kill her on her way to school in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley.

She spoke in front of a UN Youth Assembly in New York in an impassioned speech in which she invoked the names of non-violence advocates Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. and the late Benazir Bhutto and called on the world's government to provide free education to every child among other issues.





"Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world," Malala said to the nearly 1000 young leaders from around the world..

"The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same," the rights activist said.

Telling the UN Youth Assembly that she was focusing on women's rights and girls' education because they were suffering the most, she called upon world leaders to change their strategic policies in favor of peace and prosperity.

"We call upon all governments to ensure free compulsory education for every child all over the world," she said, also calling on governments to fight against terrorism and violence, to protect children from brutality and harm.

Happy birthday Malala.  May you have many more.

Yo Jennifer, Attractive Black Women Do Engage in 'Relationships Like That'

Had to say something about Florida Lt. Governor and conservafool Jennifer Carroll (R), who is embroiled in a Sunshine State sex scandal and made this jacked up comment. 

"The problem is that when you have these accusations that come out, it's not just one person you're attacking. It's an entire family. My husband doesn't want to hear that. He knows the type of woman I am. I mean, my kids know the type of woman I am. For twenty-nine years - I'm the one that's married for twenty-nine years. The accuser is the one that's been single for a long time. So usually black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that."

Oh really, Jennifer?   You don't get out much do you?   Guess you haven't heard of the term 'lipstick lesbian'.

I've been around the rainbow community since 1980, and I have seen, met and count as friends more than a few femme Black women with jaw-dropping beauty and Coke bottle shaped bodies capable of launching erections on any man or non-op lesbian transwoman, but prefer relationships with other women.

Women who look like you damned sure have engaged in 'relationships like that' for decades and will continue to do so whether your 49 year old clueless behind believes that or not.   Some of them have been in relationships far longer than your 29 year marriage.  

You don't (or won't) know about Black women who engage in 'relationships like that' because as they so eloquently put it at times, it isn't anyone's business who shares their bed or who they choose to be intimate with.

Hmm, is she the first closeted female Republican that has been busted?   Stay tuned to how this scandal develops especially since Carroll is the lieutenant governor under the very unpopular Rick Scott and she's been used as a shield to deflect racism charges.

And yeah, you know she's in the running for this week's Shut Up Fool! Award
..

Thandie Newton Takes 'Vogue' To Task For Lack Of Black Women On Cover

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor potato chips.

There is no doubt that actress Thandie Newton is not only incredibly beautiful, but accomplished; however, like many other women of colour, she finds herself unable to grace the cover of 'Vogue' magazine.  In an interview with Pride Magazine, she had the following to say according to Huffpo:

"Don't get me started on black people being on the cover of big magazines. It's so preposterous. I mean, I've been on the cover of Harper's Bazaar four times; I've been on the cover of InStyle four times, but Vogue, not once."

"And people say to me, I mean literally, people have said to me, 'What have you got against Vogue that you don't want to be on their cover?' And I just laugh."

"They [Vogue] don't feel the need to represent because it doesn't make any sense to them. It's just baffling to me, but as usual America will dictate the ways things go and a magazine like Vogue will just follow America," she said. "But it's like, don't you want to trail blaze?"

Vogue does not feel any pressure to have equal representation for women of colour because the media, just like every other social institution, aids in the maintenance of White supremacy.  We have seen time and time again that women of colour are denied coverage that White women so easily get, and when they do finally make the cover of a magazine, they have to worry that the image will be so lightened that they will be unrecognizable.  Women of colour are also repeatedly denied the opportunity for meaningful acting parts, but they sure are deemed desirable when the part of a maid is available. Even Thandie once played the role of a maid, in Interview with the Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

Race is a large determinant of who gets positive attention in the media.  When it comes to women, there can be no doubt that White women still represent what it is to be 'woman'.  They are held up as the most talented, attractive, maternal, sexy etc., while Black women are still relegated to the place of the world's unwoman.  The fact that White women continue to gain from the othering of women of colour, means that though many supposedly fight for equality, they are not moved as a group to recognize their racial privilege, or defend us.

Thandie is not the only woman of colour to talk about the erasure in fashion magazines like Vogue.  Despite the big splash that an all Black version of Italian Vogue a few years ago, Black women are continually relegated to the sidelines.  A simple look at the catwalk, shows that White women continue to be overrepresented in fashion shows.

Unfortunately too often, people cite the exception to the rule rather than the rule.  Putting women like Michelle Obama on the cover does not negate the fact that women of colour are rarely featured, nor does it stand as proof that the fashion industry, or Vogue magazine is not racist. Erasure is a form of covert racism that is practiced on a daily basis.  The very same people who would never dream of using a racial slur, have no problem excluding Black women, or actively denying us good and fair representation.

The common response to this is that Blacks should start our own magazines, if we want representation, but the truth of the matter is that a magazine is not an easy undertaking to start. No matter how talented a person is, the start up capitol is still necessary and since we know that Blacks are economically disenfranchised, the very idea that Blacks should just start our own separate magazines is ridiculous.  We don't exist on a level playing field, and this why proposals such as this, as a way to deal with erasure and racism is quite simply ridiculous.

I personally don't read Vogue, because I am not interested in fashion, and I certainly would not support a magazine that cannot be arsed to have someone who looks like me appear on even a semi-regular schedule; however, I recognize what this lack of exposure is doing to young Black women.  There is a reason why even today despite all the gains of the Black community, that Black children continue to prefer the White doll.  Everywhere they look, everything that is constructed as good, pure and beautiful is White.  From the television shows that they watch, to billboard and magazine covers they are shown, to be White is to be worthy of attention and adoration.  No matter how hard a parent tries to invest a child with racial pride, they are fighting the institution of White supremacy, which is determined to enforce the exact opposite. We need Black women on the covers of magazines like Vogue, if our children are ever to see themselves as valuable.  We need these covers to dispel the idea that Black women are just born unattractive.  There is absolutely nothing neutral about erasure and until we address the fact that it essentially amounts to a value judgment based in racist ideals, we are going to continue to have a divided society in which some people are privileged over others, simply based in the Whiteness of their skin.

Caster Semenya-21st Century Sara Baartman?

I have come to wretch you away –
away from the poking eyes
of the man-made monster
who lives in the dark
with his clutches of imperialism
who dissects your body bit by bit
who likens your soul to that of Satan
and declares himself the ultimate god!


I have come to soothe your heavy heart
I offer my bosom to your weary soul
I will cover your face with the palms of my hands
I will run my lips over lines in your neck
I will feast my eyes on the beauty of you
and I will sing for you
for I have come to bring you peace.

Dianna Ferrus 'A Poem For Sara Baartman'


Caster Semenya's unfolding story, especially in the early stages of it eerily reminded me of the other South African woman who found herself in a situation in which her body was subjected to worldwide speculation and the center of controversy in Sara Baartman.

When Semenya's story broke in the wake of the 2008 IAAF championships in Berlin I thought about the similarities between what the early 19th century medical people of Baartman's day and our early 21st century medical people subjected young Caster to in the name of sport.

In Caster's case she had the additional drama of a 24 hour news cycle, the Net or instantaneous worldwide communication such as Twitter and Facebook to spread the rumors, innuendo and speculation surrounding the story.

It's also one more manifestation of the unwoman meme that women of the African diaspora consistently find themselves being smacked with and wearying at times.

It's also being put in the no-win situation of if we excel at a sport, it's because we're presumed to have 'natural talent', not that we busted our asses training to become the best in the world at what we do.  But if we come out of nowhere and explode on the international athletics scene in a spectacular fashion, then a woman of color athlete is suspected of or automatically assumed to be cheating.  


Semenya, like her countrywoman Baartman did two centuries ago continues to face almost endless speculation about her body.   Only her, her family, her doctors and the IAAF know for sure and the fact she had a non-standard gender presentation exacerbated the rush to judgment in the court of public opinion.  

There is also the element of Semenya being in the situation that no matter how well she does at any track meet from now on, for some people it'll be under a cloud of suspicion..