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Fat-ass Black women unite!

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Published February 13, 2020 in BlackCommentator.com

 

“There’s only one thing worse than a fat-ass empowered black woman. That’s a fat-ass empowered black woman who’s got public reins in her hands.”

Across the nation, Black prosecutors are under attack for attempting to carry out reform agendas. Black women have been especially targeted. In a post-Ferguson world, history was made when voters elected the first African American prosecutors in St. Louis County and St. Louis City. Kim Gardner was swept into the office of city prosecutor in 2016. Ferguson Councilman Wesley Bell become county prosecutor in 2018. Both have been catching hell ever since they took office.

The white power structure, protected by racist police associations and supported by the mainstream media, have made their jobs a living nightmare. These public servants have been attacked personally and professionally. They have received hate mail and death threats. Their actions have been challenged in the courts and in the court of public opinion.

Kim Gardner has received more than her fair share of racist vitriol. Gardner came into office making it clear that she intended to honor the reform platform that she ran on. She declared that no one was above the law. She took on Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, charging him with two felonies—invasion of privacy and misuse of his charity’s funds. Gardner took on killer cop Jason Stockley for the murder of Anthony Lamar Smith. Although these two lawbreakers escaped convictions, the audacity to charge white men was a powerful message which rippled throughout the region. Read more

Persecution, prosecution and Kim Gardner

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Published on February 13, 2020  in the  St. Louis American

 

In 1998, the women’s unit of the Organization for Black Struggle read a piece by feminist bell hooks as part of our political education session. It totally changed our outlook about being black women. Inspired, we named ourselves Sistahs Talkin’ Back. I’ve been thinking about hook’s “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” since standing on the steps of the Carnahan Courthouse with six resilient black women from around the country.

A quote in the chapter “Talking Back” puts the public service experiences of these fiercely committed sistahs into sharp view: “those who stand and struggle side by side is a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible.” That talking back is more than a “gesture of empty words.” It is the “liberated voice.” Read more

Making Black dollars work for us

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Published in St. Louis American, December 19, 2019

All holidays in the U.S. are highly commercialized. Christmas is the most commercialized to the tune of $475 billion, according to National Retail Federation estimates. Lost in those billions is a big portion of the $1 trillion-plus spending power of black folks. Our consumerism rarely comes with demands for accountability and respect.

Some of us think about how fast our dollars literally fly out of our communities while other ethnic groups’ dollars circulate longer and benefit them more. It really smacked me in a different way when I heard Maggie Anderson speak at a program hosted by the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. I bought her book, “The Black Year.” I felt the same energy and passion in those pages that I saw and felt at the podium during Anderson’s presentation. Read more