hermelanin

[htwgss315]

Hidden Figures is a 2016 biographical film directed by Theodore Melfi. It is based on a novel about African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the space race. Their abilities and knowledge are underestimated and rebuked by their supervisors, which is yet another example of why "Black people have to work twice as hard." This film highlights the intersecting disparities that have affected Black women's lives, where wealth, race and gender have all come together to bring them at a disadvantage.Nobody accepts Black people as they are, and the higher-ups in the work environments always try to push “professionalism” on them which just, in other words, means, ‘in close proximity to whiteness.” It was refreshing to see Black women crossing barriers that weren't meant for them to be crossed. 

[htwgss315]

Megan Thee Stallion produces music that will make most “uncomfortable,” because it is “unpleasant,” but it doesn't matter because she is unapologetic.

I admire her, because she is a confident Black woman not afraid of expressing her sexuality through her music.

[thepowerofblackwomen]

Megan Thee Stallion: Why I Speak Up for Black Women

“I’m not afraid of criticism, and “Protect Black women” should not be controversial.”

[thesoulfunkybrother]

- Women Surfers Club. Dakar , Senegal .

Ph. Zonhra Bensemra

[htwgss315]

It’s sad that I have never seen Black women surf before. I love this. 

[mrsoulstice-deactivated20220624]

Who says we can’t be versatile

[grungegoths]

Full offence but for people who are trying to erase the structural and prevalent cis heteronormativity ingrained in our society,so many of y’all are bending over backwards to prove that any identity who does not confirm to your european/american ,white, middle-class, binary-conforming standards is “cishet”.

Like yall cant go around saying that “Um its not common to be cishet”  and “There are more than two genders” then shit on any identity other than the four lesbian , gay bisexual transgender bc you either cant understand it or just dont thinks its “valid” enough acc to your standards.

As people will have more resources to educate themselves about gender and sexualities and explore their identities,they WILL realize that they might not fit into the limited four non cis non straight identities which were created and propagated in the west since non western countries had gender and sexuality systems of their OWN (which btw was destroyed and erased from history by western colonialist themselves lmfao).People WILL identify with genders,sexualities and labels which might make no sense to you but will be a source of MASSIVE comfort for them.

Its really ridiculous to believe that every single person on the earth will be comfortable and fit into only the L/G/B/T identities and anyone else identifying with any identity other than those is a “cishet” trying to “invade the lgbtqa community” to “feel special”.As long as any identity isnt INHERENTLY harmful to lgbtqa people you have NO RIGHT to decide which identity is “valid” or not.

Get off your high horse and stop trying to force people into boxes just so you can make the lgbtqa community and identities “Less weird” for cis straight oppressors so that they are “more likely” to accept you.

[htwgss315]

I think everyone needs to read this.

[htwgss315]

[htwgss315]

One of Audre Lorde’s famous essays, “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” challenged how people view racism. 

For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.   They will encourage us to beat him briefly at his own game, but they will never allow us to bring about meaningful reform. And this truth further concerns those women who still define the house of the lord as their only source of support." When they are clear as day we are constantly advocating for ourselves and explaining our injustices." This quote indicates that this is an instrument that is used to oppress us and hold ignorance alive.

[htwgss315]

‎Therapy for Black Girls on Apple Podcasts

‎Mental Health · 2020

I just want to share what I have been listening to for the past couple of months. This podcast has several, several, episodes on almost anything you need. Due to the pandemic, face to face therapy sessions are limited, so this is the next best thing. If you have others similar to this please share. 

[notchainedtotrauma]

Because we were never meant to survive and here we are creating a world full of love.

m/other ourselves: a Black queer feminist genealogy for radical mothering by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (via notchainedtotrauma)

[htwgss315]

Ain’t I a Woman?

Sojourner Truth wrote “Ain’t I a Woman?” at a women’s convention in 1851. I chose this quote to respond to for a class discussion, because it held so much weight.

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?”

Personally, this quote makes me so emotional because Black womyn are really at the bottom of the chain. Black woman are the most neglected, the least appreciated, acknowledged, deemed desirable, so on and so forth. And as a Black womyn this brings me sadness and frustration. Even though womyn in general are constantly viewed as lesser than to the male, non-Black womyn are at least acknowledged, heard, and cared for. Sojourner Truth mentioned how nobody ever treats her equally as the other non-Black womyn, she doesn’t get the same treatment as them, isn’t she a womyn too? This just goes to show the devaluation that Black womyn faced then and are still facing now. What hurts more is that after 169 years the exact same thing is happening. Black womyn aren’t only facing devaluation by white people, parts of it is from our own Black brothers too. To give a slight example, recently this year, Oluwatoyn Salau, a Black Lives Matter Activist, was sexually assaulted and kidnapped. Then was murdered by a Black man. I am including this piece of information not to degrade Black men but to emphasize the hardships Black womyn face from EVERYONE.

[notchainedtotrauma]

Because we were never meant to survive and here we are creating a world full of love.

m/other ourselves: a Black queer feminist genealogy for radical mothering by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (via notchainedtotrauma)

[notchainedtotrauma]

Black women and girls deserve to live unyoked by jezebelian projections, remixes or replays. If the Black Church wants to be well, it has to do the revolutionary work of healing. Bambara provides a clue. First, in laying its oppression bare, it must rethink and repurpose its deployment of “sin”, and in particular “original sin”. Sin is not located in black women’s and girls’ bodies. It is not biological. It is in the ways we cause harm, the ways we deploy the machine against others, the ways we grind others to dust, the ways we limit and halt thriving.

from Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing The Black Female Body in Religion&Culture by Tamura Lomax (via notchainedtotrauma)

[fangyuan19-blog]

Faith Ringgold and The New MoMA

Faith Ringgold. American People Series #20: Die. 1967. Oil on canvas, two panels. 72 × 144" (182.9 × 365.8 cm). MoMA, NY

MOMA reopening and the new MoMA!!!

The painting is exhibited near Picasso’s masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), which did not show up before the new MOMA was open. As an African American woman artist, she documents what was happening in the society of the United States of the 1960s through depicting contemporary violence between different ethnic groups. This painting is a powerful weapon to challenge the world of modern and contemporary art dominated by white male artists.

“Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” by Pablo Picasso (left) and “American People Series #20: Die” by Faith Ringgold hang in a room at the newly overhauled Museum of Modern Art.CHRISTINA HORSTEN/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES

Her artwork Change 3: Faith Ringgold’s over 100 Pound Weight Loss Performance Story Quilt (1991) is displayed in the exhibition Artists as Innovators: Celebrating Three Decades of NYSCA/NYFA Fellowships at the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery of SBU. 

[fangyuan19-blog]

Kara Walker and Her Colossal Sugar Sculpture

Kara Walker. A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant. 2014. Sugar, polystyrene, plastic, molasses. 75 × 35 feet. Domino Sugar Factory, NYC. Photographed by Jason Wyche.

This sculpture is based on the Egyptian sphinx sculpture which depicts a black woman. The colossus is made from 80 tons of granular sugar and surrounded by “sugar boys” represented in a posture of servitude. The sculpture reveals a bitter theme of American history, including race, gender, sexuality, commerce, and subjugation. 

The photo is taken by Hrag Vartanian Hyperallergic.

[zarphire]

Solange - Don’t Touch My Hair ft. Sampha (Official Music Video)

This song precisely explains how it feels to be a black woman with amazing hair, which is often admired so much that people want to physically touch your hair not realizing how rude and demeaning it is to attempt to touch someone’s hair, especially without their consent.

The lyrics:

“Don’t touch my hair When it’s the feelings I wear Don’t touch my soul When it’s the rhythm I know Don’t touch my crown They say the vision I’ve found Don’t touch what’s there When it’s the feelings I wear”

Our crown is an extension of us as spiritual beings therefore touching our hair is one of the most disrespectful things someone could do to a black woman.

The visuals in this video also demonstrate just how amazing our hair is!

[zarphire]

As black women we withhold the power in our hands, we are life, we are god, we are the divine right! Black feminist theory to me should be Aboriginal awareness history group, we need to learn just exactly who we are and find our culture so we can get back to our divine being!

Photo taken by Henry R. Jones