The New Face Of Feminism
For The New Millennium
By IVIichelle C. Thomas
Breathing deeper and harder than usual, this mother of six yearns for something, anything
to calm her ner\’es. Not knowing how she will feed her children, she begins to tremble.
Walking toward the bathroom to splash some water on her face, sodden with sweat, she
stares - only to find old eyes encompassed by a sea of wrinkled despair in the mirror that
never lies. Shrill shrieks resonate through her ears as a constant reminder of a hunger that
never dies. Weakened by malnutrition, the cries stop; silence abounds ... Tears stream down
the contours of her face as she realizes that once again, her financial incompetence affords
her only a pot of empty promises to feed her six children. Groveling for a handout here,
some charity' there, she encounters the grimace of unremitting rejection. Wiping her tears
away, she consoles her children. Maybe next month will be different; maybe one of their
daddies really will come home ...
Photo: BSM Archives
In all too familiar societal
depictions of Black women,
like the narrative above, lies
this widespread belief that all
Black women excel at is making
babies they cannot afford, then
expecting others to bear their
financial burdens.
In that regard, white America tends
to promote the notion of perpetual
irresponsibility as a common
thread among all Black women,
most commonly under the guise of
“the welfare mother or welfare
queen.” Moreover, white America
has stigmatized Black women as
uneducated whores and devalued
them to subservient positions as a
direct result of the dehumanizing
power dynamics between “MAS-
SAS” and Black women prevailing
during slavery. Ironically, Black
women themselves perpetuate this
same debasement today.
Black feminists, or “Womanists”
as author Alice Walker coined it,
counters the traditional feminist
movement that strove to remove
women (specifically, white
women) from the home and to the
workforce in positions commensu
rate with that of their male coun
terparts (white males, that is).
Meanwhile, Womanists desire to
remove the Black woman from her
traditionally menial job, and place
her into the domestic sphere where
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