moya made a really good point yesterday - that we "activist-intellectuals"/quirkyblackgirls tend to cultivate separate spaces in which we preserve our sanity in a very fucked up patriarchal, racist, etc., etc.... capitalist and genocidal society. it is so much easier to bitch about the world with my progressive friends than to challenge my more conservative friends and family members. it is easier to blog about the men and teenage boys that harass my sister and i walking to the train station than to confront them (and also, sadly, safer). the problem is that this does nothing to change the "outside" world. so what do i (and we) do?
first, as brainstormed by moya and i, we need to plan a guerrilla movement against patriarchy in the black community by bombarding radio stations across the country. no intellectual jargon. no citing books that they should be reading. just some some simple - r&b is fucked up because it only teaches women to live for another man rather than themselves and each other; why is it okay for kanye to defend gay rights (which is important) but then denigrate women in his lyrics; when did men start trying to get a woman's attention by yelling out the color of her shirt or interrupting her while on the phone; and why does my fear for my safety keep me for calling men out on their bullshit...
second, the more that i travel and witness gentrification, poverty and struggle, extreme wealth, and a common, deep-rooted unhappiness that is temporarily quelled by material attainment, the more i realize that the system we're in is not working. now i'm not an anarchist (though i can relate to their frustrations), and i usually roll my eyes when i hear talk of a "revolution" (whatever that has come to mean), but the world needs a serious change that is light years beyond what obama has to offer. as much as a college education can give an individual/family/community, it will not end racism (as demonstrated by a recent incident in manhattan, my friend and i can be two doctoral students with master's degrees, but, in the eyes of the server, we're still just two black kids who will probably skip the bill). voting will not stop men from grabbing at women as they walk down the street or in the club, and then calling them at bitch for not responding. furthermore, a black man in the whitehouse is not going to make people love themselves and treat each other with genuine respect and compassion.
no, what we need is to acknowledge the ways in which our own greed (mine included) contributes to maintaining systemic inequalities. but this is hard. to quote erykah and many others - the media constantly tells us live our lives through fear and consumption. so, i overlook the reality that my clothes are made by the hands of poor women and children working in sweatshops because i know how good i'll look walking down the street. i tell myself that i can't afford to give money to spelman, and i cringe when i give my student money to help take care of her tuition, yet i am already searching for the perfect winter boots.
i'm not saying that we can't enjoy things... just that we need to acknowledge where
the need to constantly consume comes from; that our possession of material things does not give us the right to judge other people; that we need to be more eco/human-friendly in our consumption habits; and that such an inequitable distribution of wealth which exists in our world is immoral and - dare i say it - unGodly...
so... i've been thinking about this a lot lately, and i think i'm going to work really hard to make the following changes:
1. stop supporting big businesses whenever possible - especially starbucks (sigh) - and instead support local restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, clothing and music stores, etc.
2. buy the majority of my clothes from second-hand stores... and stop shopping for the rest of the year
3. work towards giving money that i would normally waste on material things to causes that are important, like Spelman and College Forward (collegeforward.org)
4. becoming more eco-friendly by not buying bottled water, purchasing drinks @ coffee shops that come in plastic container, etc.
5. again pursue my goals of self love and love of others... this means not acting on my insecurities, engaging in petty gossip (so, so, SO hard), and sitting silent when people make ignorant statements about other racial/ethnic groups, classes, or people who engage in non-heterosexual practices
if the "revolution" is ever going to come, it needs to start at home.
