Women

Ever since I came into adulthood, I have always understood my oppression as a non-white woman, gender non-conforming and same-gender-loving person, among other marginalized, intersecting identities. However, this understanding was steeped in liberal ideology; my understanding was initially informed by a white, colonial narrative.

Throughout the month of March, feminists celebrate ‘International Women’s History Month’ but fail miserably to mention some of the major issues facing African women. The ‘achievements’ of white women, along with petty bourgeois Negro women, are held in high regard, while ignoring the fact that most of these so-called achievements are made at the expense of poor and working class African women.

ST. PETERSBURG––A horrendous crime was committed on March 31, 2016 by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department in St. Petersburg, Florida.

This crime was the murder of three teenage African girls, Dominique Battle, La’Niyah Miller and Ashaunti Butler, which violently ripped them from their families.

The tragedy began when deputy Howard Skaggs saw the girls driving, to which he pulled up behind them in an attempt to harass and intimidate them.

Last month, various news and social media sites were circulating and exalting the story of Madonna’s theft of two (more) children from Malawi.

The outlets talked about the controversy around the length of adoption, the waiving of a residency requirement by the court, which states that children in Malawi cannot be adopted by non-citizens, and the motives behind the adoption. These issues, however, barely scratch the surface of centuries-long history of the kidnapping of African children by imperialist nations.

An estimated 2.6 million mostly white women participated in the January 21 Women’s March on Washington and in cities across the country following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president. 

The rallies were not considered “protests;” although they had a mission statement, the marches had no demands. Organizers have never revealed the source of their funding that provided buses from nearly every state in the U.S., but it was closely aligned with the Democratic party

Eritha Cainion (traditionally known as Akilé Anai) filed paperwork this week at City Hall for the council seat to be vacated by term-limited Karl Nurse. She joins an already crowded field of candidates, including: local NAACP president Maria Scruggs, Lakewood Terrace activist and South St. Petersburg CRA advisory board member Corey Givens and perennial candidate Sharon Russ.

Cainion says she has discussed financial and grassroots support with the Uhuru movement, but considers herself a non-partisan candidate that will accept support from across the city. 

WASHINTON D.C.––As many know, white women got together and decided to hold national women's marches in various places around the world to show the unity of all women. However, from the onset, the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) understood that this march was indeed going to be a march to address the fears of white women.

Even though the march was fronted by African and other colonized women, the idea for the march started when a white woman from Hawaii, Teresa Shook, went to Facebook to express her outrage about Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election.

Her outrage was so great that she created a Facebook event page for a women’s march which quickly grew to over 10,000 attendees within the first week. The event page was followed by the creation of a website that started off with a simple statement of “unity.”

After an African woman, Jacqueline Craig, called the Fort Worth Police department to report an incident in which her 8-year-old son was choked by her white neighbor, her and her two daughters were attacked, arrested, kidnapped and taken to jail.

Michelle Obama gave a star spangled performance for U.S. imperialism in her final white house interview with Oprah Winfrey. It had everything: black vernacular, martyrdom, symbolism and Oprah, of course.

The interview provided one last chance for black women who are not politicized to idolize the wife of the outgoing commander in thief and the matriarch of the black petty bourgeoisie.