*Last week, we cross-posted a piece entitled ‘We Are Not Your Weapons. . .We Are Women’ a harrowing testimony of surviving rape from an American activist currently working in Haiti. While we stand in solidarity with the author, Amanda Kijera, she made some troubling assertions about the credibility of rape claims and the need to speak FOR Haitian women. We felt it necessary to write a Crunk Feminist Response.” Dear Amanda, We are extremely disheartened to know that you were raped. We are emboldened by your courage to speak out about this experience and to attempt to grapple so soon …Read more »

I was working out earlier this week when a guilty pleasure shuffled onto my iPod: LL Cool J’s “Doin’ It.” As the fresh nineties beat spurred me around the track, I rapped along to every raunchy word. Eventually, the track got to the part where I like raise up my hands and testify.  LeShaun, the female MC on the track, asks LL, “how a big girl like it, Daddy?”  While I cringe at the whole “daddy” thing, I appreciate the big girl shout out. So often big and black gets conflated with a sort of asexual Mammy symbolism, and that …Read more »

Two weeks ago, on a Monday morning, I started to write what I thought was a very clever editorial about violence against women in Haiti. The case, I believed, was being overstated by women’s organizations in need of additional resources. Ever committed to preserving the dignity of Black men in a world which constantly stereotypes them as violent savages, I viewed this writing as yet one more opportunity to fight “the man” on behalf of my brothers. That night, before I could finish the piece, I was held on a rooftop in Haiti and raped repeatedly by one of the …Read more »

The spring of 2000 changed my life.  I was a graduate student in Women’s Studies at The Ohio State University, mildly active with the Afrikan Student Union.   One April day an advanced grad student named T.J. reported that the CWA Local 4501 union campus workers were stalled in their negotiations with the University, primarily over wages, and that they needed student support to win.  Within a few days there was a relatively big rally on the steps of Bricker Hall, to which I brought my djembe, and then T.J. announced over the megaphone that we were going in.  I went …Read more »

I wish Steve Harvey would go sit down somewhere and smoke a pipe, because all he’s doing is blowing hot air.  And Black women are lining up in droves for a turn on the hot air balloon.  Just two nights ago a young undergraduate student asked in a panel on racial stereotypes, “Why can’t Black women find and keep a man of any race?” Sigh. Tonight, Steve Harvey and Vicky Mabry will co-host a Nightline Face-Off: “Why Can’t A Successful Black Woman find a Man?” featuring Sherri Shepherd, Jacque Reid, Hill Harper, and Jimi Izrael. As you can see, I’ve …Read more »

Check out CFC member Eesha on GRITtv. She’s dropping knowledge on some of the latest anti-choice tactics. [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.935215&w=425&h=350&fv=] more about “A Crunk Take on the Latest Anti-Choic…“, posted with vodpod Source

Last week, on the CNN show Amanpour, I heard a discussion between the host of the show (and long-time anchor-crush of mine. Anderson who?) Christiane Amanpour talking with Louise Vance and Marie Wilson (founder of The White House Project) about feminism today. While I can’t track down a video clip of the conversation, the transcript is here. Filmmaker, Louise Vance has just created a film which will show on PBS called “Seneca Falls.”  She says, “I think what’s common is that women of all ages, but particularly young women, have no idea that the condition of women 150 years ago …Read more »