"...the Black woman in America was never meant to survive anyway." Audre Lorde
It happened six years after Our Civil War had ended. Amherst, Massachusetts had just recovered from a "first-class" earthquake, the previous year. The Leach Brother's dental rooms would soon be installing an advanced technology - a liquid nitrous oxide machine for administering gas. And the historical town had about ten family doctors. Yet, all was not well.
Outside of a local undertaker's parlor, the horses that were attached to his hearse stood silently, waiting to be driven. But the mortician refused to transport the coffin that was in the bed of the funeral vehicle.
What was wrong? Was it the casket? And, if so, what or who was in it? Perhaps, a demon. Or, maybe the remains of a mass-murderer. Nope. Wealthy Wheeler was the occupant. About 81 years earlier, in the same year that George Washington took his first oath of office for the presidency, and about ten years after slavery was supposed to have been banned in Massachusetts, Captain Samuel Parsons of Northampton sold Wealthy to an Amherst farmer named Oliver Cowls (see Blacks in Early Amherst, by James A. Smith)
Ms. Wheeler was only about five years-old then. However, her age did not matter anyway. Because from the moment that she was born, both the color of her skin as well as her sex insured that Wealthy would be the victim of economic exploitation and social oppression for the rest of her life. Nevertheless, the mortician's assistant, another Oliver Cowls, had a kinder heart than his employer. So, he climbed into the carriage, grabbed the reins, and - with great courage - took the old woman to her final resting place.
In any case, these days, the pathetically shallow minds of North American mainstream media journalists are, as usual, proving their ineptitude, by trying to malign our First Lady, Michelle Obama, because of a particular look on her face, as she was listening to a speech, during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela the other day, at the same time that her husband, Pres. Barack Obama, was taking a picture with another woman.
It is, of course, amazing that anyone or anything with a brain larger than the size of a gnat's butt would bother putting even the most infinitesimally small amount of intellectual energy into conjuring up a "news" story that is based upon something so meaningless and irrelevant. Yet, this type of foolishness is an everyday occurrence for millions of women, African American - or otherwise, for that matter.
Moreover, hardly ever mentioned, if not avoided altogether, in discussions concerning the African American experience are the historic roles of African American women in preserving the heritage of Our people in the midst of a "double jeopardy," that is, being African American and a woman. (please see the essay by Francis Beale called,"Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female",from The Black Woman, edited by the late, great Toni Cade Bambara)
Although they have been victimized, historically, from almost everyone in society, African American women have continued to have an unchallenged influence on North America by virtue of the fact that they have preserved the African American culture, at times almost single-handedly. Moreover, in both the past and present, African American women are tough,great thinkers - and doers. (So about what is the semi-literate buffoon Steve Harvey talking, when he insists women to "Act like a Lady, Think like a Man"?)
Finally, one of the most cowardly aspects of Male Supremacy euphemistically called "sexism" is: Regardless of culture, skin color, or any physical attributes like height, weight, breast size, or what have you, women are taught from a very early age to compete with each other for the benefit of gaining male approval. Never mind!
G. Djata Bumpus
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