blac (k) ademic

moving to chicago, was perhaps, one of the best things that could have happened to me. not only is my experience at northwestern thus far, amazing and intellectually challenging (my cohort and professors are wonderful), i have also found a group of women–black lesbian women–who have welcomed me with open arms and open hearts. black lesbian women, who, despite what the majority of society perceives us as, openly embrace their multiple marginalized identities. as i spend more time within and around my new “community,” i am growing in ways that i originally imagined to be impossible. Continue Reading »

faida ward, is the founder of sorryassbabydaddies.com, a website dedicated to exposing the absentee “baby-daddies” of sometimes, multiple children. charging applicants a fee of twenty dollars per exposé, ward has so far featured men (black and white), whose “baby mammas” have outted them for failing to spend time with their children and pay child support. after checking out the site, i was over at mixedmediawatch and came across this gem from thethink.

As I stated already, I have no sympathy for any woman of any color who decides to have multiple children by multiple fathers out of wedlock. It’s gross. In every sense of the word. According to one of my commenters in the last post, Fadia Ward had her first child when she was 12 years old. That’s disgusting. Twelve year old girls have babies in 1813 Jane Austen books. Not the 1990’s. And damn sure not in 2006. And if they do, it’s wrong.

So, has the “baby mama” and the “baby daddy” become part of our culture? 70% is a huge number, any way you slice it. For that number of black children to be born out of wedlock to black women, I would have to say that illegitimacy has become a part of our culture.

How do we solve it? Black women need to either (1) close their legs with chicken wire or (2) get married. There is no good excuse for an unwed single mother. I don’t care what anyone says.

i can almost taste the hatred of black women from this quote. can’t you?

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i admit it. i watch television. sometimes, lots of it. i occasionally tend to claim that it is a part of my research, when to be honest, i just enjoy watching television (especially, project runway). i do not expect much from television, i never do. so when i see something where i am slightly offended, i tend to brush it off and just turn the channel. with all of the seemingly hundreds of reality shows on television, there is always something else to watch.

my passive-aggressive relationship with television changed dramatically when i watched the second season of flavor of love on vh1. considering that bet uncut was recently pulled from the air, i thought it would be a while at least, before something so vile of a representation of black women would surface. the popularity of flavor of love, has made me rethink that idea.

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when people ask me what i study in school, i tell them african american studies and wait for the usual “oh? response.” the “oh? response” is a popular one, since many people inside and outside of academia, see fields such as comparative ethnic studies, black studies, latino studies, asian studies, and so on, as less academically challenging, than a “traditional” field such as english, history, sociology or anthropology. the dominant myth of such programs is that, since we scholars of color dominate the ethnic studies fields and focus our work on other folks of color, our skin color produces a handicap on our intellectual capability. therefore, placing us as inherently less intelligent than our white counterparts studying, say, 18th century british literature, 2nd wave feminism, or the new “undiscovered” tribe of south america.

basically, some folks truely believe that it is impossible for people of color to really add anything relevant to the academy, when we all obviously got in through affirmative action, lower test scores, or just plain luck (trust me. i’ve seen this play out firsthand throughout my academic career thus far). it is assumed that we serve no purpose in advancing scholarly knowledge because people of color have done little to contribute to the history of the states or the rest of the world. but lets be honest here. we do the work that some white scholars don’t want to touch with a ten foot pole, unless it becomes academic chique–such as how whiteness studies has become. in actuality, it is the work of scholars of color who have transformed and are still transforming the way the academy looks at the world and the people in it. where would women’s studies be without the voices of women of color? where would the study of literature be without the perspectives of black writers, latino writes, and indigenous writers?
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sorry for the lack of blog postings. i have been so busy with my (exciting!) life outside of the internet. anyways, i have a quick question/thought/idea.

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the allied media conference re-opened my eyes to the possibilites of alternative media, made by folks of color and aimed at educating folks of color.

i did have a few troubling experiences, where some well-meaning white folks took it upon themselves to dominate and derail the discussions that were centered on the experiences of people of color—such as how we see happening on my blog in particular–unfortunately.

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