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@fresherthanyouheaux
me at ASCMC meetings tbh
Young creatives are using social media to shape the culture we consume. But what happens when they don’t own their work?
Kayla Newman started her Vine account to record herself commenting on the minutia and mundanity of high school life. This was nearly two years ago, when she was 16. For her handle, Newman chose a nickname made up during an annual visit to her grandmother in Georgia: “Peaches Monroee.” She added the extra “e” because it looked playful, she explained over email.
Like a diary, Newman began filming herself daily, though she has since slowed down to meet the stresses of senior year. When she’s riffing as Peaches, Newman takes videos of herself from the passenger seat of her mom’s car in her neighborhood of South Chicago. She and her mom dance at a stoplight in one early Vine; she offers an impromptu speech on self-confidence in another. In the video everyone knows, uploaded on June 21st, 2014, Kayla admires her precisely arched eyebrows: “We in this bitch. Finna get crunk. Eyebrows on fleek. Da fuq.”
I know the line by heart. Such is the nature of internet virality. As of this writing, Kayla’s original “On Fleek” Vine has generated over 36 million “loops,” or replays. That’s where any sensible person stops the tabulation. A month after Newman’s upload, someone named Kevin Gadsden reposts her Vine to YouTube, where it acquires around 3 million views. The expression “on fleek” passes through the clutches of Ariana Grande, who vines herself singing it in August 2014 for another 9 million loops, and then through those of seemingly every other social media-literate celebrity outfit that fall; corporate entities like IHOP and its rivals employ the phrase in an effort to feign cultural relevance; talk show host Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooperexchange vaguely unpleasant jabs about its meaning. “On fleek” ascends to near-officialized language.
It’s impossible to track the chain of ownership from there on out. In fact, the chain becomes more like a swarm. Put plainly, there is no recognized ownership. The phrase Newman gave the world was used to sell breakfast foods and party cups, but it only belongs to her in an intangible sense, on the rare occasions in which people choose to give her credit.
“I gave the world a word,” Newman said. “I can’t explain the feeling. At the moment I haven’t gotten any endorsements or received any payment. I feel that I should be compensated. But I also feel that good things happen to those who wait.”
What things come to those who innovate? And who can be called an innovator? When we talk about technology, the designation of “digital innovator” is usually reserved for the engineers who create platforms or the entrepreneurs who instruct them to. Rarely do we see that language applied to the users populating those platforms, though they are tech’s bread and butter. A cursory glance at the user-generated content rising to the top of the internet heap reveals how much of it is produced by black teens, members of a burgeoning Generation Z who experiment with the iPhone gaze.
In an article for The Guardian, writer Hannah Giorgis argued that content-sharing among black users and consumers constitutes a “21st century meta-language” that gives place to dances, songs, memes, and other “sociolinguistic phenomena” that are compelling enough to make the leap from the producer’s specific context to even the most corporate of marketing campaigns. Evidence teems. In August 2015,Dancing with the Stars shot a promotional campaign featuring mostly white celebrity has-beens doing Silento’s “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” a song and attendant dance popularized on Vine. In one breathless appearance on Ellen, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton tried it too. In those moments, black teens’ internet production becomes a means for communication and entertainment. Their names as creators are harder to find.
Denzel Meechie, 20, was physically spent when he called me. After we talked, he headed back to an Atlanta dance studio to record a video of himself and his crew improvising to songs from Drake and Future’s just-released mixtape. Meechie is a dancer, first by habit and then by trade. He’s influenced by Les Twins and the fluid lines of ballet, but he isn’t inclined to rehearsing. In his videos, his preferred backdrop is the chrome of industrial spaces. He likes inventing dances that follow songs he’s moved by, something he posits elevates the impact of any given track. The Vines on his account, @SheLovesMeechie, have been viewed over 200 million times; his choreography has influenced the way many people move.
“It’s never planned,” Meechie said. “[We] just go for it, and after we have a lot of takes, me and my director will cut in and put the best six seconds on Vine. If we got a good longer take, we’ll put it on YouTube.” His first big break came as a surprise. “I went to the gas station one time, and I danced to this one song. It went viral, and all of a sudden my social media started growing because I was flooding it with dances.” The song was “Plug Snitchin” by the Houston group Yung Nation. It hadn’t been close to a hit before Meechie danced to it; afterwards, the crew found traction.
In mid-September, YouTube shut down Meechie’s channel, which had accrued hundreds of thousands of subscribers. “I had too many copyright strikes,” he said, referring to his use of songs without explicit legal permission from labels. According to Meechie, labels contact YouTube and demand his videos be taken down, often without the knowledge of their own artists, some of whom pay him directly to help boost their buzz. “And it’s crazy, you know, because the artists ask me to put the videos up.”
As prolific and internet-known as Meechie and his crew are, they are multiple steps removed from owning, in a tangible sense, their art, leaving them vulnerable to both YouTube’s whims and to having their creativity lifted by outsiders. Atlanta, where Meechie is from, is legendary as a place where teens generate culture, and then go uncompensated as their style and tastes are usurped by a corporate machine hungry for Black Cool. Cultural sharing is ancient. That the speed and relative borderlessness of the internet makes cross-platform, global dissemination seem like a consequence of tech is a convenient amnesia. The propensity to share predates the young black creators doing so online. But they ought to claim lineage. Remember, for instance, the blues.
K.J. Greene’s 2008 essay, “Lady Sings the Blues: Intellectual Property at the Intersection of Race and Gender,” published in The Journal of Gender, Social Policy & The Law, situates the American conundrum of race and proprietorship at the specific moment of blues music production. Blues leans on an unpredictable meld of instrumental prowess and rapid improvisation, and not on a premeditated, capitalist-conscious calculus. “Black artists had no input in [copyright law], and examination reveals that it is in some respects incompatible with Black cultural production in music,” writes Greene, arguing that multiple copyright standards were specifically structured to preclude black blues artists, especially women, from claiming ownership. “The idea/expression dichotomy of copyright law prohibits copyright protection for raw ideas,” Greene wrote. “I contend that this standard provided less protection to innovative black composers, whose work was imitated so wildly it became ‘the idea.’”
Part of the reason the originators of viral content are stripped from their labor is because they don’t technically own their production. Twitter does, Vine does, Snapchat does, and the list goes on.
Intangible things like slang and styles of dance are not considered valuable, except when they’re produced by large entities willing and able to invest in trademarking them.
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I saw this video on Facebook and I screamed! She is so positive, so lovely, so beautiful! This is a message you can never hear too often, because we’ve been hearing the opposite our whole lives.
Remember when cops gunned down a black man in an Ohio (open carry state) Walmart for carrying a bb gun from inside the store? They weren't indicted either.
#JohnCrawford III picked up a BB gun for sale at an #Ohio Walmart and was shot dead by police picked up a BB gun for sale at an Ohio Walmart and was shot dead by police. John was black, and his family’s lawyers Tuesday mentioned Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown as they announced the suit – evoking cases that have stirred international outrage because the three also were black and killed by police officers.
Grand juries chose not to indict officers in those cases, just as they decided not to indict police involved in Crawford’s death in Beavercreek.
The shooting happened August 5. Crawford was shopping at Walmart and picked up a BB gun that wasn’t packaged and had been sitting on the store shelf for two days.
SOURCE
You see? Armed black folks scares #Cops. You know why? Cause if black communities started use 2A to protect themselves, there would be a completely different situation.
#JohnCrawford #BlackLivesMatter #Ohio #Police #KillerCops
#StayWoke
fuck
damn. this need notes
In 2016, let’s please do better.
Watch and absorb, folks.
100% FOLLOW BACK
RIP Trayvon Martin
gives me chills
He didn’t do a damn thing wrong
I’m gonna reblog this every time I see it because never forget.
This hurts my heart
This has just finished me
Rest in Power young soldier
i think as a tumblr citizen i have to reblog this..and as a tumblr community we all should no matter how dope ur blog is..this cannot be forgotten. only we can keep this alive..cuz u no dam well the news wont and ppl will soon rarely talk about it.
No Words. Always REBLOG
On Lunionsuite.com Today: Here’s some news we missed last month. In early November, the Brazilian government announced that they granted permanent residence to 43,781 Haitian immigrants who entered Brazil in the last five years, but could not legally be accepted as refugees. Under the plan, the undocumented Haitians who entered Brazil will be granted the right to live and work legally in the Brazil.This agreement will allow Haitians who entered Brazil by Peru’s Amazonian state of Acre and Bolivia, to legalize their situation in the country and get the working document required by Brazilian employers. [ 281 more words. ] http://www.lunionsuite.com/brazil-grants-permanent-residence-to-43781-haitians/ #Lunionsuite #Haitian #Brazil #News #Immigration 🇭🇹
Yes Brazil !! Let my folks in👏🏾
Do not generalize our women. Do not marginalize our women. Do not stereotype our women. Do not disrespect our women. Do not abuse our women. Love our women. Understand our women. Be patient with our women. Protect our women. Properly address our women. Put our women first. We come from black women. We will help birth and raise black women. That’s if you’re “Man” enough, black man. ✊ #BlackIsBeautiful #BlackGirlsRock #BlackWomenAreMagic
That’s a two-way street…
Naw Nigga. Nah it’s really not. When we always speak about a group of people in our world, you’ll notice every single group is brought up and doing something problematic, except for Black women. Everyone group has some type of privilege, including Black men, but black women in this world are looked down upon from each and every side, and in the end as well, even by Black men themselves. When it all comes down to it, I just don’t see them doing anything wrong, seeing everything they’ve been through, with no privilege whatsoever.. It’s like they’re fighting for everyone else, but no one is fighting for them. Again, not even black men. You’ll see them in every body else’s battle, but you won’t see a mass number of people standing up to protect them. And after fights are over they just stand there while everyone turning to someone else. So nah, it’s really not a two way street. It’ll be a two way street when we generally love them as much as they love us. But it didn’t start with them, and they’re not even letting it end with them cause they still out here fighting for our love, and I can show multiple global instances where we haven’t fought for them back. So it’s not a two way street. It all started with a black man leaving black women behind. So it’s gotta start again with a black man fixing himself and his mental to match hers, and catch up to hers.
^^ YOU BETTA!
Did black men leave black women behind, if so at what point in history? I’ve come to understand that the late 60’s / early 70’s were the time of the split as black women were encouraged to take up the cause of (white) feminism, and with the classification of women and children as “minorities” and all of the social welfare benefits extended thereafter. I would posit that black women were never second class citizens in the pre-civil rights generation, they certainly weren’t in my family anyway (strong matriarchy in these genes). And as far as lusting after non-black women, that dates back to post-emancipation, so that phenomenon is not a new one.
Are black men dysfunctional as a result of their own doing or was the destruction of our nuclear family structure, aided by white feminism, the social welfare state (food stamps, section 8 and the resultant “I don’t need a man”, “I’m the mother AND the father” mentality) and the (continued) marginalization of the black male image contribute to a lost generation of black men and boys?
I’ve never looked down on the black woman, see no reason to. But I will say that we have all been played by the premise of “integration” which is little more than access, which only puts us at odds with one another. What if someone stumbled upon the one vulnerability we have, which is each other, and in dividing us we have all become weaker?
Thank you! But they (Black Women) are not accountable for anything. And they’re still gonna blame us for their bad decisions.
Wasn’t going to reblog or give anymore attention to this because I don’t like to bring attention to the weak people and unnecessary side of a revolution that hurts it, lest it becomes free advertisement for the Idiots. But Now, I need to deal with it, because @blackourstory reblogged this, seeming to agree with the what has been done here today by these people (since he didnt say nothin and just reblogged my rule is you agree with whatever you reblogged if you not adding nothing onto it), and he has a ton of followers, and I seen mad Black Boys reblog this from him and saying “Yup! Yes” and some bullshit, (And no black women, rightfully so) so I can’t let this go around like this. I gotta deal with White people coming to different posts with #AllLivesMatter on a daily basis, now I gotta deal with my own niggas on tumblr ok. The same Black niggas I stood up for in a post talkin bout some they woke cause they out here reblogging “Black Queens”, “I Appreciate Black Girls”, but ya’ll found a post appreciating Black women, and said to yourselves “Oh shit, how can I change this up? It’s appreciating them but how can I derail this shit…. Lord give me the power to include myself in this movement in a negative way”. and you all jumped on this #AllLivesMAtters Train. And for what reason. K so we wanna do this? K.
First let me say, jr40402011, you’re a coon. You’re a Don Lemon. There’s just no way around me not mentioning that. You’re a coon and that’s it. I’ve gone through your Blog, and through multiple posts, don’t care how many “Woke” posts you got up there, I’ve seen you reblog Black Women appreciations and Issues saying things like “How about Black Boys”, and “We’re all Show stoppers”. You sounding type Bleached right now. Kinda remind me of another type of group we’re trying to fight against. Subconsciously speaking, you have this Jealousy towards Black women and the attention they’re getting, Attention, which does not affect you negatively, as Black men get Plenty of attention in Black Communities and throughout history, and even then our Black Women’s history isn’t even well taught. You’re reblogging other things that are “woke” but your jealousy for Black women is a form of hatred where you can’t seem to let something slide by, and you reblogging Black women pictures of their Bodies “appreciating” them, and then going around to Posts about ACTUALLY Loving and respecting Black Women for who they are, saying “Hey hey hey wait, chill, remember this? or #BlackMenToo”. Why are you reblogging their bodies? Your initial post in itself is void. Why? Because if it’s been a Two-way street, and we’re at a time we’re both supposed to be supporting each other, and not saying “But wait, remember when you messed up here”. No one says forget about the past, as you both learned some type of history that says “We both fucked up equally”, but again you both start in the 70s trying to quote history, K. if this is a two way street and we “Equally” fucked up (which I will adress), why are Black women: 1. Making their very own Black women appreciation posts that deal with their issues and not just appreciation of their bodies, and almost a small percentage of you Black men not doing so, if at all, to only go around saying “Black Women are beautiful”. “But chill, Black women issues, chill #WeAllHaveIssues”. 2. Why are they Still out here supporting Black Fuck nigga rappers who fck them over as they still protect them in ever possible way.
3. Making the Black Men appreciation posts as well. Because you’re not even making your own appreciation posts of your achievements of the men who are achieving things in our current time. There are posts for you. Tons of posts for you, created by women. Tons of posts for you. And black women stfu about everything when they make posts for you, they literally forget the world when they make those appreciation posts for you. But Ya’ll on here on Black Women posts talking about some “Ok it’s a two way street……..” BUT THEY’RE MAKING POSTS FOR YOU THOUGH….. THAT STREET IS CREATED, MADE, AND WALKED…. THEY MAKE THESE SAME POSTS FOR YOU LIKE….. I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS FOR THAT FAR.
—–Until I realized lately, that, we’re not in the same mentally. They’re built to protect us, which is why at first, when doing all this research a long time ago, myself, asked how it started, if Our women so easily protect us these days. Who did they get to first? Because if the Black Women is naturally protective, who did they get to first. Since you all turned this Appreciation post into a “Blame Game”, fckin kids, I then realized it’s gotten to a point at one time, where history is repeating itself, which I’m seeing now again because of how people, Like The Reblogger Of This post, @blackourstory, Plus the Two other people on here who brought up that part of history of “Black women fucked up things” “not being accountable” @Bronzedbuddha… ?…. “And as far as lusting after non-black women, that dates back to post-emancipation, so that phenomenon is not a new one…..”—? It’s funny how you took up the most important point of that whole thing, one of the main causes of all the problems, and dusted it under the rug and through it out like….. “iight since the beginning even tho our women were gettin raped by these white people, we were out there fckin these white women cause we weak as fck but….. THAT WAS LIKE… HAPPENING FOREVER (EVEN NOW) SO I DONT EVEN SEE HOW THAT’S A PROBLEM. WE JUST FCKIN OTHER WOMEN AND LEAVING OUR WOMEN BEHIND” For You, and for your little coon friends on this post.
Here’s a TimeLine, of what happened in history:
-Pre-emencipation: Black Men Starting To Lust After White Women, Willingly Coupling With White Women. Black Women Denying White men, But Getting Raped by White Men being forced to bear their Babies. -Pos-Emancipation: Black Men, Still Out There Coupling with White Women (Way before the 70s, since that’s where most of your dickheads histories start from), While, still Black Women Were Trying To Hold It Down. Not Only were Black Women Trying to Hold It Down, While you were Out There Fckin these White bitches incessantly because They had Already Gotten To The Men, Before The Women,
During that Very Time, Black Men were all already being fed the “Fruits” of integration. While that was happening, Black men, were readily already chasing White Women, White Success, White Livelihoods. At that very time as well? There Was no Movement to stop the rape of our women. The Issues our women had to deal with. During those times, Black men were so focused on White things, the cry of the Black women who stood behind us all the time was muffled. How Muffled? Let Me Put It this way, and bring up one of the biggest names on your plates, MLK. During all of the Using our Black women went through, Something terrible happened along with it. When Black Women were raped and were victims through many other ways we don’t let reach the surface, you know what the Black Movements of our leaders, like those MLK was involved in did? Nothing? Yes, and no. Not only did they not do anything, they actually did something in that they Turned around, Blamed the women, told the women who were victims of rape, called them impure. Prevented a lot of them from joining the movements. Put them down. Shamed them. Now, Black Women, who had been with us all this time, who are already mentally built to support us, started losing every singly type of support they’ve ever gotten because White Men were destroying Black Men with integration, Easily controlling them into going after White Success, and White Women. Do you really think, that Black Women got up one day and Said, “There are no problems happening to you Black Families yet….. BUT IM GETTING MORE MONEY THAN THIS NIGGA NOW LMAO I DONT NEED HIM SO IMA CREATE ALL THE PROBLEMS MYSELF LOL FCK OUR BLACK MEN OFF THE BAT.” Through theory, even without any evidence at all, we’d come to the conclusion, if we were optimists, that the Black Women would have used everything she’s earned, to try and Keep Black Families Together. But we don’t even need to wish for the Evidence. Black Men are looking only at what’s on the surface talkin about some she got money so she tryna be stingy with it and think she the boss and kicked us out. No. Black Movements, Black Leaders, Black Men, Black Everything, and everything outside of Black supported each other, and left Black Women Behind to Fend For Herself. -With The Black Women now having no one to turn to, we can turn to problems like White feminism, and make sense of things as to Why. What happens Black Women have no one behind them supporting them? They’ll turn to something else to do so. They’ll try to identify with other people who they have something in common with. Women. Even though a movement might not be for them, where else they gonna go? -They’d then go after the family structure easily. They’d then go after getting us to fight easily. They’d then go after Black men as well with whatever plan they could go with.
Catching Malcom X trying to Give speeches trying to keep us from leaving and from integrating telling us Black Men we need to focus on on Our Black Women, cause they’re getting to us men too easily.
You really putting a lot of the Blame on Black women? Who simply came along with us, and tried to protect themselves when they received no protection?
In No point in history, has our Black Women, even during the times we were supposed to support them the most, gotten the support they deserved. They were neglected, unprotected, left alone. Despite the Bias black man history your learned. It was not them who people went after first. It was our mentality, that one of you tried to so easily sweep under the rug like it was them who caused all these problems, while only the lack of protection of black men, the victimization by black men, and then neglect from most black leaders as well. Black women, are not the ones who left us to go searching for other successes first.
But My Main problem here. My number one problem on this post, is the whole conversation that was had today on this post derailing a Black Women Appreciation post. Like I thought I knew Black men better today but I was proven wrong today.
First off scratch off the mental that it was Black women at fault for what’s happened to us. It’s your pussy chasin bitch ass white success chasin as selves and leaving things behind that opened up the door to everyone jumping in here. So inflated with your Egos that you still trying to prove you not at fault, or everyone is equally at fault. Everyone is not equally at fault. Pussy non responsibility taking as niggas. And yall call yourselves men, trying to keep gender roles but not tryna say “Yo, fck whose fault it was, I’m a man, This post is about Loving our Black Women right now, so Love our Black women, Right Now”. “It’s a two way street…….”
Yeah, right now, even as we focus on how to rebuild ourselves after you were the first to leave Black women behind, trying to start your histories in the 70s like you werent out there letting our women get raped, here’s an example, of even the woke Black Men on here, as for a “Two way Street”
-Black Women, Making 99% of their own appreciation posts, even with the Men to Women Ratio on here.
-Black Women, Making Black Men Appreciation posts as well, Along with Black men at the same time praising their own selves.
-Black Women Complaining About Black Men Not Loving Them Enough
- Majority of Black Men on here posting All day Reposting Pictures of Black Women’s bodies and porn all over my dash talkin about I love black women
-Ratio to percentage of Black men on here, not making Black Women appreciation posts.
-Black Men not posting the most they can on Black Women history
-Black Men, again, leaving behind Black Women issues as they try to fight for it themselves.
The reason I even bring this up, because the SADDEST part of all this i that the wokest of these “Woke” men are on here on tumblr. And they’re on here on women appreciation posts derailing, talking about some, “What about us? It’s a two way street?”, So, then, I can only imagine the kind of shit the people off of here are doing.
Do not generalize our women. Do not marginalize our women. Do not stereotype our women. Do not disrespect our women. Do not abuse our women. Love our women. Understand our women. Be patient with our women. Protect our women. Properly address our women. Put our women first. We come from black women. We will help birth and raise black women. That’s if you’re “Man” enough, black man. ✊ #BlackIsBeautiful #BlackGirlsRock #BlackWomenAreMagic
Look at that post.
At what point during that post, did you need to say, #UsBlackMenToo? #HeyRememberWhenBlackWomen #ImJustSayinBlackWomenNeedTo…… What in that post hurts you that you can’t keep your mouths shut? Do you not have enough appreciation posts from yourselves and black Women as well? And on top of that, not making appreciation posts for them? Who’s supposed to Love them?
So you got one brother out here making a nice Appreciation post for his women, and you got another nigga out here derailing? For what reason? How did this post badly affect Black Men? None? So why are you on here in the first place when you have enough Black posts for yourselves? What fckboy trap was set here, that said “Do all of this to Black women, but, do not do this to Black men and forget about.” Black women go through way more Problems than Black men, and as men,
the OP just simply tried to appreciate his women and acknowledge their struggles. And that’s it. What brought all you fckboys to this post? I’m trying to figure that out? Where did it say “But don’t do this to Black men”. Why are you boys still on this post saying “How about us?” when you get your daily dose?
I Don’t See You Saying “How about Black Men Body Appreciation” when you got all those Black Porn Reblogs on My Dash, So How did You Manage to Get On This Post… You Black Men Only On Here To Support Black Women’s Bodies? Or…? How Did a “Black Women Are Beautiful” post become a “Black Women Need To Take Accountability for Their Action Post” ?
Next Time You See a Black Women Appreciation Post, If You’re Not Here To Support That Specific Part, Move Along and Go Do Something Else, And Let The Black Men Who Want To Support Them, Support them. Don’t Derail An Appreciation Post. Only Good can come from that post, no bad. #AllLivesMatter ass niggas like ya dont have ya own posts everyday. Only-Black-Women-Bodies Rebloggin ass niggas.
I appreciate @africanmelanin so much for this… Beyond words. Instead of letting this go, while so many other (Black Men) either derailed this post or reblogged w|o doing exactly what this post was Clearly about, you, AGAIN, stood up for us. Broke it down. And did so in such a way… 😌This made me exceedingly happy to TEARS. Thank you King.
Clap back of 2015 @fedupblackwoman
10 Ways You Can Support Black Women
1. Stop slandering our natural features. Stop with the dark skin jokes. Stop with the natural hair jokes. Stop dehumanizing black women for our features. Black women–especially young black girls–internalize these “jokes” and grow to sincerely hate their blackness. Cut it out.
2. Respect our choices. All of them. You don’t have to like it but you need to respect it. If we choose to wear our natural hair, respect it. If we choose to wear weave, respect it. Stop chastising us for the choices we make for ourselves. Stop policing how we choose to live our lives. Let us be great. Gahdamn.
3. Stop with the respectability politics. You can’t say you love black women and then pick and choose which black women you’ll respect based on your standards. You still give a black woman respect regardless of how she chooses to live her life. You respect all black women because we are human just like you, not just the ones who wear natural hair, listen to erykah badu and shit.
4. No means no. If you approach a black woman and she says she’s not interested, oh my fucking god, my nigga, just leave her alone. Move on. Let it go. Please do not persist. Take the rejection gracefully. Don’t call her out name, don’t follow her, don’t assault her. Let her be. She doesn’t owe you an explanation. Her “no” is enough and you will deal my friend.
5. LISTEN. Bruh, when black women are telling you something you’re doing is harming them, can you put your ego aside and just L I S T E N. Why is that your first reaction is to get defensive? If you love black women like you say you do, wouldn’t you want to know when you’re doing something harmful to them? Stop getting defensive every time a black woman calls out your misogynoir. Stop brushing that off as “bashing black men.” Stop calling black women “shea butter bitches” for calling out how you harm black women. Black women are just asking for empathy at the end of the day. That’s the least you can do.
6. Stop slut-shaming. Stop shaming black women for their sexuality. Stop calling black women “thots” and all kinds of hoes because her sex life is something YOU disagree with or because she presents herself in a way that conflicts with YOUR standards. Someone’s sexuality has nothing to do with you and you don’t have the right to police what a woman does with her body. Stop reducing a black woman’s worth because you don’t like what she does with HER body.
7. Understand that our identity intersects. Stop telling black women they have to “pick a side.” Black women aren’t black men or white women’s “side kicks.” We are our own people with our own unique struggle that, yes, may have similarities to BM’s and WW’s struggles, but is not identical to theirs. We are black and we are women. You can’t be an ally to black women and not be intersectional when our existence is the epitome of intersectionality. Black women don’t just experience racial violence, we experience gender violence as well. Stop insisting that we have to divide our identity down the middle to suit you.
8. Say something when you see black women being attacked. When you see black women being harassed online and offline, do something. Ya’ll gotta start holding each other accountable. Stop @-ing me telling me how terrible it is that I’m being attacked. @ ole dude who’s attacking me. Tell them to stop. Have my back. Intervene in the best possible way you can. Stop allowing the violence against black women to persist right in front of your eyes.
9. Please kill the “strong black woman” narrative. Placing this title on us constantly, denies us humanity. Black women aren’t allowed to be vulnerable like everyone else. We’re constantly told be strong or we’re written off as only angry and bitter. We’re told how we’re suppose to feel and how to respond to violence against us. Black women are humans. We laugh, we cry, we smile. We can’t be your idea of “strong” all the time.
10. Show up for black women. Black women consistently show up for everyone else but when it comes time for us, hardly anyone is there to be found. Police brutality doesn’t just happen to black men. Recognize it. Know the names of the many black female victims of state violence. Know their stories. Share their stories. Fight for them like you fight for Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Sean Bell. Fight for black women like black women fight for you. Organize and show up for black women. Stop leaving us hanging. Stop expecting our support and giving us little to none in return.
Grand jury decides not to indict officers for fatal shooting of Tamir Rice
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor Tim McGinty announced Monday there would be no indictment or criminal charges filed in the police killing of a 12-year-old black boy in Cleveland last year. Why critics have called out the tactics used by McGinty in the case.