It would be nice to see some other images of "successful" Black women in the political sphere. It tires me to see Black women who are chewed up and spit out in ways that leave them alternately broken, self-effacing, or simply invisible as we are discarded across the landscape of political history.
- Shirley Chisholm running for President to make a statement, not because she thought she was electable.
- Fannie Lou Hamer being pimped and sacrificed by King, as he desperately grasped like a wildman to maintain his political influence.
- Cynthia McKinney, being pimped by the GOP and Denise Majette, scared to open her windows even after she has left office- for fear of being murdered.
- And, Condi, excuse me, Dr. Rice. She's the Black woman's Clarence Thomas.
Just once it would be healing to see a Black woman who wasn't broken by the system, or accepted into the system because she was already broken and therefore a potential tool to forward the agenda of oppression; blaming Black folks for the current conditions which have resulted from intentional and targeted efforts to restrict, contain, and alternately annihilate us.
But, if you would smile more, and pay attention in school, things would be just fine for you Blacks. Oh, and pull up your pants. The only thing standing between you and an end to the legacy of American slavery is a belt. Legislative violence, political violence, economic violence, social violence, physical brutality is really all simply a matrix of strategies designed to get you to pull up your pants. Loose the baggy clothes, and they'll find something else to harp on.
The problem is not the trappings of Blackness; the problem is Blackness itself. Why don't they make James Cone mandatory reading for Civics class and citizenship applications? At least then, Blackness could be framed as the liberatory agent in this whole fucked up system, whether we decide to Paulo Friere our way out of this or not. Frantz Fanon anyone?
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