Remembering the real sisters in certain areas of the country

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Satoshi Kanazawa tried to get on the bandwagon with the bigots, the chauvinists, the idiots, who are always stating obvious untruths about somebody in order to attract attention to sell their books or to justify the silly positions they take to raise eyebrows. Kanazawa, an obvious bigot, has with the help of Psychology Today produced fictitious genealogical nonsense about the lack of physical beauty of Black women. Anyone who has an ounce of vision would refute that one for us. I guess Kanazawa is trying to outdo the racist, Robert Jensen’s, claims back in 1969, that whites are “inherently more intelligent than Blacks.” Others like gangsta rappers have denigrated us and belittled our worth. We’ve often been overlooked as mate material by some misguided brothers who offer all kinds of silly explanations for their choices.

Well, after viewing the PBS Special regarding the Freedom Riders a few days ago, I decided to do a few reminders about just a few beautiful, brilliant, successful, courageous, real sisters—otherwise known as Black women who have through the years made ours a better nation. We owe them recognition and applause even if others don’t offer the same.

I know I will leave some out who deserve to be on this list, but we have to start somewhere! Sojourner Truth, without bitterness, worked to gain the right to vote for all women, while working to abolish slavery—thus taking a giant step toward freeing America from one of her greatest sins. The incomparable Harriet Tubman, conductor of the Underground Railroad. She was so courageous in freeing the enslaved and fighting against the confederate non-sense that she earned the title of General.

Rosa Parks bravely sat down on a bus in Alabama so that others could stand up, as did Irene Morgan in Virginia several years earlier. Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Marian Wright Edelman, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Melissa Harris-Perry and Diane Nash whose names should be lifted up. All of these and more in communities all across our nation are beautiful, brilliant, successful, courageous and Black. Let us remember our own and celebrate our own truths even if they are dismissed, denigrated, discounted or ignored by mainstream media and others in our society. Together we must reject the bigots, the racists, the chauvinists and all forms of ignorance as we sisters strongly value our own dignity, as we join forces to keep on keeping on.

Let us be mentors to those who come after us. Let us love and respect one another and ourselves. Let us heed the words of our sister, the First Lady Michelle Obama as she spoke to the young sisters at Spelman a few days ago. She said, “Find those folks who have so much potential but so little opportunity and do for them what Spelman has done for you. No matter where you go in the world, you will find folks who have been discounted or dismissed, but who have every bit as much promise as you have.

They just haven’t had the chance to fulfill it. It is your obligation to bring Spelman to those folks. Be as ambitious for them as Spelman has been for you.” The First Lady went on to share her transformation from a Chicago girl with humble roots, to a corporate executive and later, executive director of a nonprofit organization. She also encouraged the young women to recognize and combat naysayers. “There will always be folks who try to raise themselves up by cutting other people down.

That happens to everyone, including me, throughout their lives. But when that happens to you all, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to just stop a minute. Take a deep breath, because it’s going to need to be deep, and I want you to think about all those women who came before you, women like those first 11 students. Think about how they didn’t sit around bemoaning their lack of resources and opportunities and affirmation”. While the First Lady was talking with young Black women at Spelman, we should all heed her message wherever we are.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. is National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. She’s also Chairman of the Board of the Black Leadership Forum in Washington, DC. To reach her, call 202/678-6788; e-mail dr.efaye­w@gmail.com or see website at www.nationalcon­gressbw.org.)

This story originally published in the May 30, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.