Black Lives Matter, But Black Women Don’t

As we can clearly see in the news, a new generation of racism has arisen. From police brutality to racial slurs being thrown on campus, even to an African-American church being bombed. It’s like the civil rights movement all over again.

But, there is a unique opportunity here that we have as black people. Other races are hearing our cries and are fighting with us. Some police forces have taken racial matters into their own hands and are requiring diversity training. Campuses are taking extra precaution (let’s take Mizzou for example) by not allowing racism to continue on campus, even if it means forcing resignations. Now, even predominately white areas and regions are fighting for black people.

Here is our chance to reunite black culture. Because let’s be honest, unity hasn’t always been on our priority list. We scream “black lives matter” at the top of our lungs, yet still pick up guns and kill each other. Black people kill each other far more than cops kill us. So, who exactly should we be crucifying?

Unity begins first with eliminating our own racially destructive stigmas. And the first one that should be eliminated completely among all black people is the belief that lighter skin is the better skin, meaning pulling the trigger on this “ugly black girl” stigma.

I recently saw some disgustingly racist posts on social media discriminating black women. One was a comment made by a black man that resides in Phoenix (aka the worst place for a black woman to find a man, but that’s a whole separate article) stating plain ignorance about black women.

“Do nobody want no nappy headed, no father havin…don’t want to go to college, bad credit havin, ghetto black woman.”

And he’s not the only ignorant black man that thinks like this. Since residing in Phoenix, I have ran into several black men that don’t date black women, nor find them attractive. Some of them actually believe that dating a lighter skin, especially white, gives them a higher status.

I also saw this account, @whitesmattertoo, that posted several pictures degrading black women. On a post with a full figured black woman, wearing a shirt that said “magic” the comment read,

“Nothing magic about a smelly woman with big legs and bingo wings and brown skin. Blacks are only in America because Whites transported them here from Africa to be used as slaves…”

See full comment below. 

The account was created months ago and just recently was taken off Instagram.

Now there are going to be ignorant people out there and because of social media, we will run into these idiots at some point. The only bad influence social media has is that it gives ignorance an audience. But it also allows individuals to speak against it – if we care enough to do so.  

We need to be taking bold stands in our defense of black women. Why? Because black women are the ones being victimized, and a lot of this is by our own race.

Darker skin black women are still stuck playing second best. There are thousands of brands across the nation that don’t advertise to black people or use full African-American people within their campaigns, such as American Apparel, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, and J. Crew, to name a few.

Rappers continue to amp up this light skin vs. dark skin debate in their lyrics. Take Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Future, and Asap Rocky for example.  

“For instance, I get-get my dick licked/Red bone complexion like a piglet, kiss kiss” -A$AP Rocky, “Keep It G” Feat. Chase Infinite & Spaceghostpurrp

Not to mention that black rappers continue to exploit the body of a black woman by constantly using the same type of black woman in their videos – half naked with a ridiculously big butt, a small waist and long fake hair. Can’t they use a naturally shaped black woman with her real hair?

Why is it necessary for black rappers to constantly gloat about their sexual preferences, as it completely degrades black culture?

The point is that right now, we as black people are beginning to become a true voice in society, as well as history. We are beginning to have more influence in the world, something that our ancestors fought so hard for us to have.

For this reason, it’s now more important than ever, to be aware of what we are listening to, speaking about and what we are allowing on our social feeds. If we see injustice of any kind, we need to speak on it and repost it, blog about, talk about it! Don’t ignore it.

I find it astounding that in these last 10 years more dark skin black women have been nominated and have won Oscars over any other time in history. (Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique, Octavia Spencer, Lupita Nyong’o) But the biggest reason of this is because of black producers and directors such as Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen and Shonda Rhimes. It was their influence that made this possible.

It takes an influential black person to make these gains in our society and to fight stigmas. That’s the type of black person all of us should want to be.

We need to take a stand against all racial slurs and stigmas, especially those given by black people. We need to continue to evolve as a people, and we can’t afford to let ignorant comments about big lips, big thighs and light skin tones deflect the media from real issues.