About Erotic Relationships between African American Men and Women

Dear friends,

Prior to the Civil War, it was not uncommon for a free Black man who was in love with a woman who was held captive to sell himself to a slave master, whether that slave master was Black or white (and yes there were thousands of Black slave masters in the antebellum South), with the promise from the aforementioned slave master that he would free his female captive who that Black man wanted to marry, after a term of however long upon which they'd agreed.

After the Civil War the relationships between African American men and women remained fairly secure… However, especially starting with the first massive migration to the north (or here up South as opposed to down south), during WW1, the new northern African American male began taking on the traits of his European American counterparts. It became even worse after the second massive migration to the north (or here up South) during WW2 by African American males.

Still, the idea that females, regardless of skin color, are socialized from a very early age that their primary objective in life is to maintain the approval of boys and men, and having babies in order to "hook" a man, so that he will care for her for the rest of her life is the biggest problem. Of course, once most men - African or African American, Caribbean, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, European or European American, are able to get past their pathetic insecurities and inadequacies that have them  needing to find self-worth at the expense of females, then they will do as I did, that is, raise their daughters to be independent yet cooperative, self-sufficient, competent, loving, caring, and prosperous adults. That will also have a huge affect on how boys are raised. But this will require that both males and females embrace value judgments that are not based upon using each other as means to ends so that they can collect as many trinkets and baubles as possible.

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Beyonce "Givin' head" in a Limo! - the new Feminism ?

Dear friends,

I guess when the First Lady of the United States happily admits that if she could be anybody else it would be you, then why not do a hit record that graphically describes you giving a man a blow job, because you want him to like you?

As a matter of fact, perhaps Michelle and her two girls are rockin' with grandma to Beyoncé's new hit called "Partition" right at this moment. And not to leave out the White House, the long blonde "Weave Queen" even mentions in the lyrics that her sperm donor "Monica Lewinsky-ed" her gown. Yum Yum - or Yuck?

Surprisingly, she's getting great support from many African American women. I can only imagine that these are the same women who bought Steve Harvey's book, "Act like a lady- Think like a man".

Nevertheless, it just goes to show that there is no correlation between having any amount of money and having self-esteem, much less self-respect.

This whole affair reminds me of an incident in my own life, back in 1978. I was a big-time amateur boxer in New England who had recently been introduced to and soon would sign with none other than Smokin' Joe Frazier as a pro.

Because I was an amateur boxer, that means that I wasn't paid for fighting. In fact, for that reason, during the daytime I worked in Boston's now former Newmarket Square meat district. I was what was called a "beef lugger" (super-strong guys who unloaded sides of beef from trucks) - an occupation that no longer exists, because now beef is chopped up and boxed right there in the slaughterhouse, then driven around the country to supermarket chains via tractor-trailer trucks.  In any case, everybody who worked in the meat market, from meat cutters/butchers to truck drivers and luggers made pretty good money. On Fridays, therefore, it wasn't uncommon to see prostitutes walking around the dock.

Now, it was a hot early summer day and a young African American woman in high heels and a mini-skirt, about my age at the time (24), for a couple of weeks, had been coming around on Fridays at lunchtime - that is check-cashing time, and prostituting herself by giving blow jobs to all comers (pun intended) for $10 - gas was only about $.40 a gallon then.

Usually there would be about a dozen or more guys, almost always "white", lined up outside the little closet- size door that secured the tiny room where she did her work. This particular Friday, when her business was apparently slow, she came walking along the ramp offering blow jobs for $10 to any takers. When she reached me, I looked her in the eyes with a disgusted expresion on my face and said, "What are you doing out here shaming yourself and all other black women sucking off these white boys?" She simply sucked her teeth, shrugged her shoulders, turned around, and started walking in the other direction, still hollering out her offer.

About two weeks later, either right before or after July 4, with only a week to go before I would be going to Joe Frazier's Gym in North Philly, I was taking my son, who was three years-old at the time, to his daycare's annual picnic. It was a very expensive and exclusive daycare, but it was hooked up with a big shoe company, and I didn't even have to pay anything because a close friend's mother told her company that my son was her grandchild and employees didn't have to pay for daycare. She also did that for me, because I was a single parent and that was unheard of for a guy to be in those days.

At any rate, when I walked into the picnic area at the playground behind the daycare, sitting there at a picnic table with her toddler, in a nice classy summer dress was guess who? That same young prostitute from the meat market who I had scolded only two weeks earlier. The look on her face, as the commercial says, was "priceless."

My son had been going to that daycare for a year and a half, but I'd never seen this woman, other than at the meat market, before. I was just as shocked as she was. Both feelings and conflicting feelings stirred in me. I mean, on the one hand, I wanted to blast her and embarrass her. This was all happening within a split second. Then the son of a West Indian woman came out in me.  "Be respectful." So, as she stared into my eyes, perhaps expecting the worse, I simply nodded my head at her and kept walking into the picnic area towards the other guests.

I never saw her again after that day. I've always hoped that that incident may have been one for her to change her life.

Still, the issue of women and young girls bowing to Male Supremacy, as opposed to resisting it, if not trying to totally destroy it, has everything to do with the female half of our species being locked out of the experience that everyone should have: of trying to be fully human by mastering both one's inner and outer powers/capabilities, in conjunction with the way that s/he lives life.

Finally, Beyoncé claims that the pathetic lyrics of the non-melodic trashy so-called song on the link below is somehow contributing to the advancement of feminism. That is not only a lie, but a stupid one! Will she teach her little baby, Blue Ivy, to look at life within the context of how she can make a man "like" her? Or, will she encourage her daughter to develop a "sense of self" that is based upon the latter's powers/capabilities to accomplish goals by herself and on her own, without relinquishing her dignity to any man - or woman - regardless of any promises of trinkets, baubles, or dollars?

G. Djata Bumpus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXJ-QVpWbGg Read full post

Dr. Barbara J. Love on Sexism and Equality

Dear friends,

Just the other day, I emailed a dear friend,  Dr. Barbara J. Love, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Social Justice (U-Mass, Amherst), about some ideas from Facebook posts that I had shared recently on my Timeline. The two-parts question was

Djatajabs.org: Barbara, what do you think about my assertion that equality and sameness are NOT the same thing!...That is, all men are not the same, yet, far too many men brag about what women can't do (for example, jump as high as men or run as fast or think as smart), as if the aforementioned men's sorry butts can do anything themselves other than hide among the herd of other men and talk trash...Moreover, does any of that have anything to do with men and boys insulting other males by asking, "Come on man, why are you acting like a bitch?"

Her response appears below.
***********************
Dear Djata:

Not sure what you are asking me to comment on.

As you have noted, sexism and male domination serves purposes of oppression, domination and subordination, all of which are rooted in greed, the desire for power and control of resources.

Equality is not the same as equity. Most liberation workers are seeking equity, not equality. (if we both get a size 10 shoe, that would serve the purposes of equality, but might not serve our individual needs very well. The purposes of equity would be served if someone found out what size shoe would work best for each of us, and then provided that size shoe that fits each of us.)

While the biology of men and women is different, there is nothing about the current construction of gender roles that is actually justified by that difference in biology. Biology has been used as an excuse to legitimize oppression and systems of domination and subordination, power and control.

Both men and women are hurt by sexism and male domination. Violence and the threat of violence is used to maintain systems of oppression.

Your statement: " Come on man, why are you acting like a bitch?" is a very good example of the psychological violence enacted toward men to keep them "in their place", that is to keep them playing the roles of domination required of men to maintain the patriarchal society.

That statement represents the devaluing of women, clarifying that the status of women is pretty much equal to that of a dog, and sends a clear signal that a man would not want to be identified with that lower status.

All the Best,

Barbara

http://www.barbarajlove.com/#%21about-us/cjg9 Read full post

"Equal Pay for Equal Work!" - a red herring?

Dear friends, 

Is the issue of "Equal Pay for Equal Work!" a red herring? After all, millions upon millions of men suffer from the same problem as women, if they don’t belong to a union, for example. Consequently, it seems, at least to me, that both the heart and soul of capitalism thrive upon the unfair equation: the less money paid to the employee = the more money for the employer.

But what is far more troubling to me is the fact that too often females, starting at birth, are taught that they are less valuable than little boys and men. Moreover, they are taught to pander to the whims of males, disregarding their ability to constantly seek to be fully human, that is, to be independent, thoughtful, competent, and self-sufficient concerned citizens, as boys and men are encouraged to be. Instead, they are encouraged, even from other women, to be manipulative and deferring to some man-or boy-who will allegedly “take care” of them. Let's end Male Supremacy! 

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

We Nust End Both Male Supremacy and White Supremacy!!!

 

 

Dear friends,

 The phenomenal Malcolm X once said “you don’t catch hell, because you are a Republican or Democrat...you don’t catch hell, because you’re a Baptist or Methodist...and you sure don’t catch no hell because you’re an American...because if you were an American, you wouldn’t catch no hell...you catch hell because you’re a black man… You catch hell, all of us catch hell for the same reason."

 The point that our beloved brother was making, and it still holds true, is: our oppression and exploitation is not inflicted upon us as individuals...rather, the injustices that are put upon us are done so as a group.

For our women, there is the double jeopardy of being both black and female...of course, in a socially-stratified society like ours, one can belong to an oppressor and an oppressed simultaneously...the Clarence Thomas\Anita Hill case proved that quite adequately.Likewise, European American women, while they are oppressed as females can be equally racist and harmful to all African Americans, as well. The same goes for European American (so-called “white”) people who make staunch claims of “sexual identity”, based upon something as precarious, if not frivolous, as the human sexual appetite.

 

 Therefore, to me, anyone who claims that s/he wants to get rid of human oppression and exploitation must necessarily insist that we rid ourselves of both Male Supremacy and White Supremacy...after all, long before Barack Obama there had already been scores of black presidents all over Africa and the Caribbean (and continue to be)...yet, that has not helped the plight of black women (or their children) in those places...if anything, it’s far worse than here.

 

Liberation!

 

G. Djata Bumpus

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Male Supremacy rules - in Nigeria/Africa too

"Why are males, of all ages, so insecure that they need to get their self-worth at the expense of females, of all ages?"

Dear friends,

On the link below is a 25 minutes-long video about human trafficking in the nation that has the world's largest Black population, Nigeria (Brazil is 2nd, the US is 3rd). The real problem, even more so than White Supremacy, is: Male Supremacy. It fosters both economic, physical, and emotional violence against females, literally, every second, of every minute, of every day. Moreover, it is a far bigger issue than " The Economy", Nuclear war, or Global warming.

Let's stop it! Why are males, of all ages, so insecure that they need to get their self-worth at the expense of females, of all ages?

G. Djata Bumpus
http://saharareporters.com/video/video-human-trafficking-prostitution-and-organized-crime-nigeria-nigerian-connection-film-part Read full post

Will Climate Change lead Lower-middle class Women into prostitution?

"Climate change will lead poor women to opt for "sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage" warns a resolution proposed last week in Congress."

Dear friends,

There is hardly enough data, empirically or otherwise, for responsible scientists to draw some of the conclusions that the useless mainstream government- and corporate-controlled mainstream media are constantly presenting.

The article on the link below begins, "Climate change will lead poor women to opt for "sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage" warns a resolution proposed last week in Congress."  Do men get into sex work and sexual transactions, especially when times are hard?

And why not talk about Male Supremacy and how in the United States, for example, no woman has yet to be POTUS, even though that has happened and is happening in some of the other countries in the world? The best country in the world. God's country. Right. And while some Democrats grandstand about more women being involved in decision-making, Barack Obama, in spite of promises and rap, still has very few women in his cabinet.

Finally, at least to me, the problem should be solved at its origin/root. Recognition of how climate change will be extra destructive to females calls for an end to the systematic oppression and exploitation of all females, Male Supremacy, euphemistically called Sexism For it provides males access to the most of everything, even though, most often, women carry the burden of rearing humankind's children. And all of this is specifically based on gender. Now, let's watch and listen to what these corrupt federal politicians mentioned above do about that.

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130429_Dems__Climate_change_may_lead_poor_to_sex_work.html Read full post

Jen Armstrong on Obama's latest faux pas

Dear Friends, 

Okay, on the link below, my longtime friend, award-winning journalist Jen Armstrong of the Philadelphia Daily News, is the older version of Dr. Namandje Bumpus, when it comes to rightfully denouncing men objectifying women.. Still, I look forward to the day when that same protest, regarding the objectification of women, is directed towards men who either put on a wig and dress or have some scumbag surgeon make them a vagina, and then those same aforementioned men call themselves "women". .Ya dig?.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/jenice_armstrong/20130407_Pretty_dumb_comment__Mr__Prez.html

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Organized Aghani women resisting Oppression and Exploitation!!! (originally posted 9/29/10)

" RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977..."

Dear friends,

Here's the Website of a serious women's movement that has been going on in Afghanistan for some time. It is very exciting!!!! Please check out this link. One Love! http://www.rawa.org/index.php

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

African American Teenage Girls Need Our Support Too

"Parents themselves must have a meaningful way to look at life, other than collecting trinkets and baubles, because your children are watching you!"

Dear friends,


Last year (2012), six beautiful African American teenage girls (I wonder if anyone ever has called them beautiful, because of their darker complexions) attacked a middle-aged, mentally-challenged woman (who I'm presuming is African American), in Chester, PA recently.

For all of the emphasis on "Black males", who do people think bear the latter, through pregnancy?. Yep!. Females.

Therefore, at least to me, it is time for African American people to STOP placing so much emphasis on our male youths only.. After all, to continue concentrating on their male counterparts only, furthers male promotion of, as well as, female submission to, Male Supremacy, no matter how well-intentioned the efforts in favor of emphasizing on males is.

Moreover, it is the responsibility of ALL parents, African American or otherwise, to give their children direction and guidance that is based upon informing identity through the connection between generations, along with their true historical and cultural experiences, so that the "market" doesn't suck our youth into all of the nonsense that has culture being defined outside of generational processes (genuine culture), with nonsense about "gang" culture, "gay" culture, "youth" culture, and all other such idiocy!.

Parents themselves must have a meaningful way to look at life, other than collecting trinkets and baubles, because your children are watching you!

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120930_Six_teens_charged_in_brutal_Chester_beating.html
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