WomXXn!

Are You Fed Up Yet???

The past couple of weeks have been some of the most depressing when it comes to news on women.

Women aren’t fed up enough… When I speak of women here, I am NOT referring to those whose lives were snatched from humanity. Rather, those of us who still have breath in our bodies should be fed up!

I found out that almost 50 Palestinian women and girls are killed in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict every day. Unfortunately, there are too many people, women included, who are blinded by nationalism to fully acknowledge the gravity of what Palestinian women and girls are forced to endure. While there is NO EXCUSE for the events on October 7, the punishment does not fit the crime. Innocent women are paying the price for what males did, and that is wrong. The males don’t care that they are slaughtering innocent women and girls for crimes their fellow men committed. The males who committed the 10/7 atrocities don’t care that their female counterparts are paying for those crimes. So the world will continue on this never-ending cycle. Men are radicalized because they experience oppression, they go on to commit crimes against their declared oppressor, and that oppressor enacts revenge killing, mostly of women and girls. More men are radicalized, they commit more atrocities, their opponent gets revenge, women suffer, rinse and repeat.

While many wonderful women are speaking out for women on the opposite side of the aisle, it’s not enough. The question is, why would an Israeli woman not see the humanity of a Palestinian woman or a Palestinian woman not see the humanity of an Israeli woman? Why? Because nationalism is opposed to women’s liberation. Nationalism includes men and their needs while excluding some women and their needs. Nationalism and women’s liberation cannot coexist. You will hate one and love the other. TO BE CLEAR, this discussion is not limited to West Asia but nationalism everywhere. Nationalism says that some women should be safe from rape and murder, as opposed to women’s liberation, which believes ALL women should be safe from atrocities. Nationalism says that some women deserve food and shelter, while women’s liberation requires ALL women to get what they need. Nationalism acknowledges the oppression SOME women face, while women’s liberation wants ALL women to be free from oppression. Nationalism prioritizes the nation while women’s liberation prioritizes women. Be honest, under which system would all women be safe and free?

The West Hates Black Women

Here in the States, the media is finally seeing misogynoir in real time. I don’t remember any point in my lifetime when multiple murders and alleged murders of Black women made headlines. In the cases below, men either were the murderers or were alleged to be:

Dr. Cerina Fairfax (death by husband)

Florida Vice-Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen (Haitian immigrant)

Pastor Tammy McCollum (murdered after preaching a Resurrection Day sermon).

Ashley Janae (Ashley Robinson- Died while on a trip with her White fiancé-hmmm)

Barbara Deer (killed by her own son)

Qualeshia “Siditty” Barnes (A pregnant nursing student and Rapper)

Shemar Elkin, a Black father, killed his seven children, one other child, and shot two adult women. I cannot yet confirm the various details of this horror. Some claim he fathered the children by two biological sisters. Others say the women were unrelated. Who knows?

To add insult to injury, some men are claiming we should sympathize with these killers. The “same men” who would not dare offer sympathy and understanding to the likes of Derek Chauvin. Get my drift?

This isn’t even a complete list. I’m going to be totally blunt: men are not friends of women, especially not of Black women. I’m going to be even more blunt and state that Black women are in far more danger than Black men, or any men, claiming a female “gender identity.” I need to mention this because tributes often include Devonta Curtis on the list of the recent murders of Black women. HE was beaten to death by HIS boyfriend. Make no mistake, HE should still be alive, and HIS murderer deserves to be placed six feet under a jail. However, Devonta’s horrific murder is a completely separate conversation from atrocities against Black women. It’s another example in the long list of male-on-male violence. Don’t like that I’m calling a man a man? “Argue wich yo daddy.”

Now let’s get back to where the focus should be, Black women…

I am disheartened and furious at the constant bullying by men directed at Black women. It is nothing short of persecutory. I do not doubt that I’m not alone in struggling to like them as a collective; I struggle to understand the desire to be in a heterosexual coupling. These feelings should be an expected outcome of witnessing constant attacks on women, regardless of race. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m saying you shouldn’t expect anything different. I hear similar sentiments from A LOT of women.

Still, Women aren’t fed up enough!

Increasingly, White Women Don’t Matter

We all watched in horror as Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who managed to flee Russian aggression that killed many of her Ukrainian sisters, only to be fatally stabbed in the neck by a Black male lunatic who has recently been declared unfit to stand trial. Although Renee Good’s killing wasn’t recent, I can’t forget the chilling words her killer uttered after he shot her “Fucking Bitch.” How Christian of him.

I still don’t have words for the men who viewed an online rape academy 62 million times…maybe except that that huge number only represents the men who enjoy watching women being raped, not the hundreds of millions who haven’t looked at it YET.

I don’t know if the world as a whole is getting worse or if men are getting worse. So my questions are:

How are you feeling?

How do you stay safe in these turbulent times?