Black Women: This is OUR fight too!

I’m not sure how many of my sisters truly understand that there is a WAR ON WOMEN happening right before our eyes.  I have to question this because, I see white women on Face Book and at rallies joining together to make their voices heard (with a splattering of black female faces here and there).  But I don’t see enough black women to convince me that we actually know what’s happening.  Maybe we don’t care.  Maybe, we just don’t understand. 

I’ve grown weary of this fight and I am now at the point where I pray daily for women’s rights.  Because at the blink of an eye we could easily wake up the day after the elections in November and no longer have the rights to decide what WE want to do with our bodies.  I know many women share in my opinion that it’s just ridiculous that in 2012 we are still fighting for our feminine liberties.

This election isn't just about a Republican attack on the middle class.  These people are placed us in an all out  fight for our rights as women!  Women, of all nationalities, are at a dangerous place in history right now.  Republicans are supporting legislation that will lead us back to the dark ages; a time when women had no freedom of choice and our voices held no value.  If you think this is far-fetched and won’t happen today, I beg you to take some time and read about Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s position on Planned Parenthood.  They plan to stop federal funding or to put plainly – to get rid of it. 

This is not a “white thing”.  This is a woman thing.  I am concerned that black women are not seeing this and thusly are not pissed off enough about it. 

Why are we so inclined to let the next group of people stand in the trenches while we pray that they are successful?

Why has the face of this battle been given to white women when the entire issue is about being a woman?

In trying to bring some level of comprehension to these questions I was reminded that black women are lost in struggle each and every day.  We are fighting on our jobs to prove that we are not all angry and disgruntled.  We are fighting in our relationships to prove that we are valuable and lovable.  We are fighting in every sense of the word whether we do it consciously or not.  So when we are called upon to fight for what doesn’t seem as pressing as making ends meet; feeding our children; paying bills; juggling duties of motherhood, etc..

I’m sure many people think that there is no difference between what a black woman and a white woman must do.  This is an untrue notion.  You see, white women have an underlining power that black women have never and will never possess.  That power is being born white.  When white women stand in front of the Capital in protest they are seen as a group of organizers with something to say.  If black women were to do that, we’d be looked at as a gang of angry black women shouting. 

So there is a discrimination that is even more prevalent than that of a black man in this society, but that doesn’t mean that we should not be involved in standing up for our rights.  As a matter of fact we should be screaming louder than most because our rights are the first ones to go.  The personhood issue, while it’s an attack on all women, was designed to affect women who can’t afford babies or abortions and women who have not been made privy to the information they need on birth control.  Who do you think monopolize the majority of this category?  It’s not the white home makers, who show up at the capital; who form support organizations; who meet with their friends over cocktails planning a course of action that will legitimize their efforts; who recognize that there is power in number and power in information.  No, it’s women who live check to check and who get up every day with a strike against them just because they are black and female; who stay home with their children because they can’t afford day care; who work minimum wage jobs because they don’t have experience or education to do any better; who ride buses and walk to those minimum wage jobs; those women who have not been afforded information on pregnancy prevention.  I know you think everyone has access to cable and the internet, but you are sadly mistaken. 

Our charge is to become educated about the issues going on around us AND then to stand up for our rights.  We can’t leave this to someone else to handle.  We can no longer fall under the radar giving the impression that we don’t care about the laws being made to keep us silent.  We’ve been silent much too long.  We have been complacent and we have been unengaged long enough.  We, black women, have a voice that comes straight from struggle and pain.  This voice is just as important as men and white women.  It’s time that we start fighting back; time that we fight for OUR rights.  It’s time that we stop passing the buck and hoping that God just have enough pity on us to let those who march and protest win the battle for us.

It is high time that black women take our rightful place in this society.  We prove daily that we are strong enough to endure the struggles of life.  It’s natural.  We do it with our eyes closed.  Problem is that while our eyes are closed, we are missing the jabs society is throwing at us.  We are standing to the side, silently not allowing our frustration with being disregarded lead us to victory.  We can no longer separate ourselves from this war on women.  We must become engaged in it.  We must learn what the Republicans are doing and what we need to do to stop it.  We must take a stand for ourselves and our daughters.  They count us out.  They believe us to be uninterested, ignorant, and irrelevant to the issues at hand.  That must cease, immediately.  It’s time that we support each other and our sisters of other nationalities.  Not just about personhood and abortion either.  We must stand together and demand respect on our jobs, in our community, in our homes, in our relationships.  It’s just time to stand our ground and dig deep enough to know and believe that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

We can not afford this silence; it'll cost us everything.

See this link for more info: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/gop-platform-abortion_n_1815021.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular