After years of inattention, in the past month, the mainstream media has suddenly turned its eye toward black women. And the resulting coverage, filtered through a pretty jaundiced lens, is enough to make me wish the world had never "discovered" us. Here are the messages we've heard: 1). Men don't want us. 2). We don't have any money. 3). We're fat and unhealthy.
That about sums up the popular media narrative about African-American women. Over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, "Living as a black male is much easier than listening to other people talk about how hard it is to live as a black male." Indeed, the sad portrait of black womanhood painted by the media bears no resemblance to my lived experience as a black woman. Nor does it reflect the realities of the black women I know. As is often the case when the dominant culture speaks of people of color, we are defined not by the whole of our lives, but by our challenges. Read more...
Check out the site and spread the word about this new venue for discussion about race.
I'll be back tomorrow with a post about the urban fantasy literary genre and a review of Ardeur, a new book that analyzes Laurell K. Hamilton's popular Anita Blake series.
