Well, what's happenin' folks? I'm Jae and welcome to my blog. Now, you'll get to know me more as we go along so I'll keep the intro short and sweet and get down to the nitty gritty.
What this blog is about:
"Just Climbing" is a blog all about Black Women's well being and happiness, and most particularly mine. I'm young, love life and am looking to change my life for the better. This blog is also a way to encourage my sisters to do the same.
For so long we have been a fed a pack lies. Every aspect of our lives, from our looks to our educating to our mating choices have been used as avenues to hurt our integrity and self-esteem. So many of us have been trapped by these lies and have actually listened to those who try to tell us what we're worth. Well, sisters I am here to tell you that they are all wrong. WE are the masters of our own lives and happiness.And I encourage all sisters to take control and live to the fullest.
There are several premises that I operate by and I would encourage you to read the post that explains what led to my observations of these principles and why my blog is so named.
Things you MUST understand:
1. When I refer to the "Black Community" I am NOT speaking of the collective population of people of African American descent in this country nor any geographical or physical location, be it the inner city or anywhere else. The vast majority of Black Americans are not, individually, violent and dysfunctional people. Those of us on the inside generally understand this, so when we refer to and criticize the Black Community, we are referring to a collective group think/mentality that is applied to certain situations affecting Black Americans at large and the subsequent behaviors that go along with it. The "Black Community" is an ideology or mentality that a segment of the Black American Collective conforms to, and is NOT the Black American Collective itself. The "Black American Collective Population" is the word I use to describe all people of Black American descent and the Black Community is a subset of this. Therefore, when you read through this blog, you must understand this.
2. What must also be understood, is that the Collective Population of Black Americans are NOT a monolithic group who all feel the exact same way about everything. Unfortunately, people are very comfortable with the stereotypes that are so much a part of the Black experience today, which makes it difficult for those individuals who do not engage in those behaviors to distinguish themselves as individuals or even as a separate collective. One of my biggest pet peevs is when non-Black people assume that I must have voted for Obama or that Al Sharpton is my leader. *sigh* Look people, THERE IS NO LEADER OF BLACK AMERICA.
What has happened is that any big mouth with a platform is automatically considered an authority for no other reason than.... he has a big mouth. That's just as insane as if Paris Hilton all of sudden claimed that she was the spokesperson on American foreign relations. Add to that the issue of certain so-called black leaders being backed by white liberals and you have a further marginalization of Black Americans who do not share the Black Communities values and ideas. What I hope to share in this blog is the experience of those of us who have been caught in the middle.
3. For so long, Black Americans like myself, who are upwardly mobile, value success and are not trapped in "hood mentality", have been trapped between two identities not of our own making. To those of the Black Community, we are sell outs, bougies, traitors, and not "black enough". To non-blacks, we are merely exceptions to what they believe is the rule of blackness- underachieving, poor and ignorant. Both conceptualizations are offensive and we're sick of it. What they don't understand is that we operate with the same cultural value system as our ancestors and those of the Black Community mindset do not. You see, we view those individuals who fit the stereotype as different from us as non-blacks do.
Due to the fact that media is contorted to represent the mainstream culture which is mostly white and middle class, most people don't understand this as many people attempt to present the Black American Collective Population as a monolith. They also don't understand that there aren't two different classes of blacks-one good, one bad. The point is that there are different classes period. The class issue is something that a lot of so-called black leaders don't want to touch. I will explain later.
4. Many Black Americans who find themselves in this precarious predicament often times don't know what to do about it. They either still try to find a place within the Black Community Model and attempt some sort of conformity, or they walk away altogether. The emotional difficulty comes in the backlash that they often face. If you listen to a certain kind of music, enjoy certain kinds of entertainment, speak a certain way, you will often be said to "think you are white" and are ashamed of your ethnic heritage.
This is very painful for people who really are proud of who they are. This is why so, so many attempt to show how much they identify with the Black Community Model so as not to experience that. The underlying idea is that if you are the same race then you should think of yourselves as the same kind of people. That's just hogwash! How many white people actually identify with neo-Nazis just because some neo-Nazi claims to represent all whites?
5. There is also a generational issue. Many of the older folks of the Black American Collective were there before the Black Community Model became what it is today. Our ancestors and for many of us our grandparent and great-grandparents had a completely different way of thinking then the newer generations. They were painfully private people who simply wanted to work hard as individuals for collective betterment.
This all changed in the 60's and 70's when the Black Power Movement came along and introduced socialist/Marxists ideas. This is where the "eff the establishment" types came along and turned everything into a race war. Now it should also be noted that the Black Power Movement is different from the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was largely built on our ancestors ideals and sought to peacefully end the terrorism that Black Americans had lived with for centuries and to help them find their place in a new integrated society.
What the BPM sought to do however, was to establish black separatism- by any means necessary. Many of the older generation still believe in CRM model and the good old, "pull yourself by your boot-straps" mentality.Those of us of the younger generations who agree and are aligned with our grandparents was of thinking are the ones who often find ourselves in conflict with the modern day Black Community system of thinking.
6 .Now there has historically been another system of thought that has had a particular affect on not only black religious institutions, but also Black women. That is what is called Black Liberation Theology. BLT is a system of religious thought that basically attempts to make the story of the Gospel relevant to Black Americans by showing how God is the help of the poor and downtrodden and favors them over rich oppressors. This is what has lead to so many people, trapped in this vicious cycle of poor ideas, always viewing themselves as victims. The influence of the BLT can not be overestimated. Even churches that may not be officially stating BLT affiliations, still have absorbed much it's ideologies.
Where this relates to black women is in the development of Womanism, which came out of BLT thought. Womanism, not to be confused with Black Feminism, seeks to affirm Black female identity and encourages her to be strong for the community. This is where the idea of Black women as the back-bone comes from. Alice Walker, who coined the term said a womanist is one who is “committed to the survival and wholeness of an entire people”. While I think it's fair to say that she originally meant for it to be more female centered, what it seems to have become, in my opinion, is very community focused. You see, Womanists actually do believe that the sexes are complimentary, that men have certain roles and women have theirs in a system of reciprocity.
The problem that has occurred, however, is that Black women have had it hammered into them to "know their place" while Black men largely have not. An ungodly amount of responsibility has been left on her shoulders. Because she is expected to hold everything down, far too many Black men view it as their excuse to not do the same. They believe that a Black woman is to cook, clean, care for and raise children, hold down a job and obey him. That is why you will often hear them repeat the term "submission". For them, that means, "Do as I say." There is no gender/relationship reciprocity.
7. Finally, that all leads to the modern day misogyny that Black women live with and too many accept as normal. Because they have been so heavily indoctrinated into believing that suffering is a normal part of the black female experience, they don't know how to question the place within the community that they are given They can not think of themselves outside of or apart from the black male collective. You see, BPM, BLT and Womanism, all sold them a pipe dream that states that if the Black woman just stays in her place-under the Black man-and does as she is told, then race uplift will happen, meaning that there will be a dramatic decrease in racism, classism, and poverty and then we would all finally be free from oppression.( Now I want to be fair is saying that Womanism has experienced a lot of changes and certain ways of thinking within this school of thought are being challenged.)
Unfortunately, the other end of the bargain has not been held up. There is no corresponding amount of pressure put on the shoulders of black males to be equally responsible for this mystical race uplift. For too many, a woman's submission is needed so that he can fulfill his personal goals and desires, NOT so that he can better his "community".
8. That is all further complicated by the fact that, since the abandoning of traditional black ideals and systems of thinking, the Black Community has replaced them with these more radical concepts of social communality and conformity. They have actually attempted to change, not only what it means to be of Black American descent, but also what it means to be proud of that descent. So, if you don't conform and most importantly, if you dare to criticize, then you are just a self hater.
This is where so many Black women in particular get stuck because they don't know how to undo all of the indoctrination. They still believe that their identity as women is only authenticated by identifying with black males and by default the Black Community Model. That is the idea that I hope to challenge in this blog.
Our feminine identity can and must be explored and actualized outside of the boundaries of the Black Community system of thinking and we declare that the Black Female Body and Mind is no longer community property.
I don't want to go through what my mother endured. What my aunts and friends have endured. What so many young Black women my age and younger are now enduring. I don't want to repeat a vicious cycle. I don't want to bare the entire weight of a community that does not defend or protect me on my shoulders. I simply want to live be my OWN possession.
