#black feminism

memoriasconsazon:

Ella Baker has really introduced me to the danger in egos. She really got it. I can’t unsee it now. I can’t unsee or unlearn the ways we put our egos on the forefront before our causes, movements, and even our people. She led and organized and taught in such a sustainable, selfless, intentional way…and we, I, need to revisit her for lessons and direction for my future.

Ms. Baker is magic revolutionarily embodied, deadass.

“teach her to reject likeability. her job is not to make herself likeable, her job is to be her full self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people.”

— dear ijeawele, or a feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions by chimamanda ngozi adichie.

toblackgirls:

Two Black Girls are proud to present our list of resources related to Black British Feminism and Black British identity/ Black diasporic identity. We use Black here as a term political term used by those of African, Asian, Latin American and those descended from the original inhabitants of Australasia, North America, and the islands of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. We hasten to add that the list is by no means exhaustive but we hope that someone out there will find it a useful starting point. Please feel free to reblog and add to the list or even send us an message with anything you think should be added to the list. 

There is a code of some sort: normal text is for books,italics for journal articles andbold for video/audio. Links with an * next to them indicate that the link leads to a pdf download of the text, those without link to Amazon. You will find, however, that many of the titles are offered on google books with a limited preview. 

On Black British identity: 

• Still no black in the union jack, UCL Lunch Time Lecture, Caroline Bressey.
• There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultures of Race and Nation  by Paul Gilroy 
• A Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain eds. Siddiq Sayyid, N. Ali and V.S Kalra
• Inside Babylon: The Caribbean Diaspora in Britain eds. W. James and C. Harris
• Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain, Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. 
• “Being Mixed Race” at WOW Women of the World 2013. Summary from the southbankcentre soundcloud:

 Broadcaster Reya El-Salahi; entrepreneur & blogger Alae Ismail; Kiran Yoliswa from Styled By Africa and Irish-Nigerian visual sociologist Emma Dabiri discussed the joys and challenges of being a dual heritage woman in modern-day Britain.

• Differences, Diversity and Defrinitation by Aviar Brah*
• Not so much about Black British identity but about race and racism in the UK: Reni Eddo-Lodge initiated a ‘grown up conversation’ on race on Twitter by asking her followers what  they thought was missing in the understanding of race and racism in the UK. The tweets that followed were, as she writes, thoughtful and considered: part one,part two. 

• ‘Mixed race’, ‘mixed origins’ or what?: Generic terminology for the multiple racial/ethnic group population by Peter J. Aspinall *

• CLR James, ‘Black Power its past, today and the way ahead, speech given in 1967*
• Rosalind Eleanor Wild, ‘Black was the colour of our fight’, Black Power in Britain, PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 1955-1967*

On Black British Feminism: 

• Black British Feminism: A Reader ed. Heidi Safia Mirza*
• Young, Female and Black by Heidi Safia Mirza
• The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain, by Beverley Bryan
• Lola Young, What is Black British Feminism? *
  
• ‘Other Kinds of Dreams’: Black Women’s Organisations and the Politics of Transformation by Julia Sudbury
• Intersectionality, Black British feminism and resistance in education: a roundtable discussion bySuki Ali, Heidi Mirza, Ann Phoenix & Jessica Ringrose*
• Stella Dadzie discussing Black Feminism Identity. The Black Cultural Archives commissioned an oral history project wherein they interviewed 29 women who were part of the Black British Feminist movement of the 1980s. The project can be found at the archives. 
• Brixton Black Women’s Centre: Organizing on Child Sexual Abuse by Marlene T. Bogle*
• Brixton Black Women’s Group (a history of the Brixton Black Women’s Group by members of the group.)*
• Who Stole All The Black Women From BritainbyEmma Dabiri. 
• The Southall Black Sisters have a range of reportsthat provide insight into the experiences of Black women in the UK. The reports are free to download but please consider making a donation to help the SBS keeping doing the good work that they do if you do download them.  
• The British Library has an online archive of their Sisterhood and Afteroral history project where you can find short oral history interviews discussing women’s liberation. Look through the categories to find interviews related to Black British Feminism such as this one with Mia Morrisdiscussing the campaigns organised by the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent. 
• Becoming Visible: Black Lesbian Discussions (1984), a roundtable discussion between Carmen, Gail, Shaila and Pratibha *
• Talking Black: Lesbians of African and Asian Descent Speak Out ed. Valerie Mason-John.
• Challenging Imperial Feminism by Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar (1984)*
  
• Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain by Amrit Wilson 
• Dramas, Questions, Struggles: South Asian Women in Britain by Amrit Wilson 
• Do you remember Olive Morris? We have linked to this website before it doesn’t hurt to link it again. Do you remember Olive Morris? is an art-based community project that aims to remember the life of Olive Morris a Brixton-based activist who co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD), and was part of the British Black Panther Movement. The website is not only a hub for information about Olive Morris, but it is also a hub for information about OWAAD, the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the British Black Panther Movement. 

Bringing this back because, you know, it’s Black History Month.

We Interrupt Our Regular Programming 4 A V.I.P Message

By Daudi Adi|  April 26, 2021

What does love look like? What do justice and accountability look like? What does abolition look like? Love looks like pouring resources into community safety, community defense, and community housing. Justice and accountability look like community mutual aid, community farming, and community food security. Abolition looks like community dual power, community susu circles, and community education. 

Abolitionist love and justice look like survivors having access to natural and essential resources. Abolitionist love and justice look like ensuring survivors are housed, fed, clothed, and have access to high-quality healthcare. Abolitionist love and justice look like survivors having access to healers, safe and brave spaces, safe and brave sanctuaries, and other safety structures. 

In celebration of abolitionist love and justice, we are practicing (and urging readers to practice) solidarity with multiple Black survivors of capitalism, cisheteropatriarchy, racism, imperialism, colonialism, the medical industrial complex, and the prison industrial complex.  As Prof. Assata Shakur (PB2D) says, when we love and support each other [by practicing solidarity with one another], we have nothing to lose but our chains. 

Here are some fundraisers, programs, and structures to support. 

• Support Jordan Khiry’s move and transition.
  
• Help Myiah’s family pay rent and other bills.
• Support the global movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners.
• Join the campaign to Bring Tomiekia Home and Free All Survivors. 
  
• Be in solidarity with the Black Trans Lives Matter Youth Fund.
  
• Feed, Clothe and Support QT Naijans.
  
• Give a home to Harriet’s Bookshop.
• Support The Mojo Medic.
• Join the Barbara Smith Caring Circle.
• Fund Joelle’s recovery.
• Help Alicia Miller secure housing.
• Support the creation of LGBT+ Community Centers in Ghana.
• Share nutritious food with The Detroit Community Fridge. 

Although my heart is heavy, I continue to find joy and hope through practicing solidarity with community members and organizing towards a liberated society. I hope these personal and communal practices bring you joy too. 

Sending you love, good juju, mojo, and ase as you continue to make liberational moves in your community.  

In November of 1947, a death in Ellaville, Georgia, led to a court case that caused national outrage and protests for the rights of black women in the Jim Crow South. At the center of the court case was Rosa Lee Ingram, a black sharecropper who, along with her three oldest sons, was accused of murdering their white neighbor. The Ingrams were involved in an altercation with their neighbor that resulted in his death, but the family asserted that they acted in self-defense, as the neighbor was threatening to kill Rosa Lee over a minor incident with their shared livestock and had previously threatened her with sexual assault.

In Ellaville, the majority of the population was African American, but black citizens were denied the right to serve on a jury.[1] As such, the outlook was not favorable for the Ingrams while they were on trial, despite their claims to self-defense. Unsurprisingly, the Ingrams’ case was rushed through the Schley County legal system; indictment, trial, and conviction all took place in under a week. A death sentence was delivered to Rosa Lee and two of her sons, Wallace and Sammie. Civil rights activists saw the trial as a violation of the rights of the Ingrams and began rallying and campaigning for the family.

This pamphlet was produced by the Daily Worker, a newspaper distributed by the Communist Party USA. Leftist groups were dedicated to commuting the Ingrams’ sentences and many women who advocated for the Ingrams’ release would eventually go on to found Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a black left feminist group.[2] As Erik S. McDuffie writes in his article, A ‘New Freedom Movement of Negro Women’: Sojourning for Truth, Justice, and Human Rights during the Early Cold War, the case “…represented in glaring terms the interlocking systems of oppression suffered by African American women…” as well as being “…a violation of human rights.” [3] The National Committee for the Defense of the Ingram Family used the trial as a rallying point for collective action against racist and sexist legal systems in Georgia. Through protests and petitioning from the NAACP and black Communist groups around the country, the Ingrams’ sentences were eventually commuted to life in prison. Activists continued to appeal for parole for the Ingram family for years after their sentencing and they were eventually released on parole in 1959. Rosa Lee Ingram passed away in 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia.[4]

References:

McDuffie, Erik S. (2008). A “New Freedom Movement of Negro Women”: Sojourning for Truth, Justice, and Human Rights during the Early Cold War. Radical History Review, 2008(101): 81–106. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-2007-039.

Raymond, Harry. (1948). The Ingrams shall not die!: Story of Georgia’s new terror. New York: Daily Worker. 323.1758 R21I

Rountree, Emma. (03 December 2018). Rosa Lee Ingram Case. In New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/rosa-lee-ingram-case.

[1] Raymond, 7.

[2] McDuffie, 85.

[3] McDuffie, 84.

[4]Rountree.

Please be careful out there. Black Lives Matter. Love and solidarity.

✨.

God is a woman

Great African Women In History You Should Know

(I know the pictures are not authentic, but look at these beautiful women)

some Egyptian queens

• Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

queen of the damned (2002)

queen akasha

goddesses and gods of ancient egypt

(some of them)

photos-pinteres

source-internet