Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Wisdom of a Female Scientist on Violence against Women & Girls


 "Instead of women, including myself. focusing on our chances, or lack thereof, of getting married we need to actively combat the objectification of women..." Dr. Namandje Ne'fertiti Bumpus


(Originally posted 3/20/11) 


Dear friends, 


 Last year, I read a piece by a dear friend, award-winning journalist Jenice Armstrong of the Philadelphia Daily News. In her article, Jen talked about the difficulties of, particularly, middle-aged professional African American women finding a suitable mate once they have passed 40 years of age . 


 One of my two daughters, Namandje, a medical scientist and college professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has just reached thirty years-old (now 31), but she has spoken with me about the here-to-mentioned stats before. Therefore, when I read Jen's piece, I forwarded it to her for comments. Her response showed that she had more concern for the recently (2010) murdered grad student from Yale, Annie Le, and how that incident relates to male/female relationships generally. Namandje's response appears below. 


 Stop the Violence!!! 


 G. Djata Bumpus 


*********************************************** 
Hey Dad,

 The Yale graduate student murder is the issue that is most on my mind. A young woman and young pharmacologist was strangled in a lab she was working in doing her thesis research perhaps by a man that worked with her and was interested in her. She had done research at the NIH (National Institute of Health) and was now a student at Yale.

 Yale has a very well-respected pharmacology graduate program so we are talking about a serious graduate student that was serious about developing her science. She wanted to become a professor in academia, when statistics show that many women for whatever reason (family commitments, etc.) choose not to go that route. This hits close to home for me.

 The lab for people that are dedicated to our craft is not the same as the average person's workplace. We live in the lab mentally and even physically in a way. We dream about experiments and wake up to write down what we were thinking and run into lab to test it the next day. Many of us spend more time there than we do at home.

 The fact that a woman could be victimized and murdered in that setting is very troubling. Women cannot walk down the street at night, or sleep in their home alone or even work in a lab in broad daylight alone apparently without having to think about the fact that they might be attacked by a violent predator. Instead of women, including myself. focusing on our chances, or lack thereof, of getting married we need to actively combat the objectification of women. Once this happens the definitions of men and women and our places in society can evolve to a place that does not depend on women being lesser which currently in many ways they do. Perhaps then we will all approach looking for and entering into a life partnership in a more productive and intellectual manner.

 Namandje

1 comments:

Djata Bumpus said...

From my Mom:

Dear #5 son Djata,

Namandje' is right on the meat of the thinking of the better
choices of life, and as times are changing so rapidly it is
the consensus of thought among gifted, African American
professional women that they "step up to the plate" and
stop this hyprocrisy of a black woman should keep a man
as Toni Morrison wrote..

We are now being regarded as "People of Color" and if you
read Michelle Alexander's book, "A New Jim Crow" you will
see in the unspoken word that there is not going to be much
of good choices for our women.

At 87 years old, living alone, I do not have any peace for this
race of talking heads, but I have had enough experience in
life and still study and read, that I stand by my decisions
and choices,

God has blessed us. What beautiful and wise grandchildren.

Love you,

Grandma Bumpus