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NATIONAL
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Black America's problems caused by Sexism?
by Shannon Gibney
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
MINNEAPOLIS (NNPA) By most accounts, African Americans aren't doing too well. Blacks are six times more likely to be murdered than Whites, and the vast majority is Black-on-Black violence. And, more Black children live in poverty than ever before. Blacks marry less often than Hispanics or Whites and two out of three Black marriages end in divorce.
One in 10 Black men in their 20s and early 30s is in prison or jail, and Black women suffer violence from their Black male partners more than twice as often as White women suffer violence from their White male partners.
All this despite the significant gains of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements – all this despite our attacks on legalized racism, institutionalized racism, educational disparities, unequal health care access and service.
But according to Bennett College President Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Spelman professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall, authors of the provocative new book “Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities” (Ballantine Books), a primary cause of these lasting ailments is rarely, if ever, acknowledged or dealt with in our communities. That ailment is sexism.
In 230 pages of well-documented arguments, anecdotes, and studies, Betsch Cole and Guy-Sheftall put forth the persuasive and troubling assertion that the lack of partnership between Black men and women is our Achilles heel. This inequality, they argue, has marred our progress since slavery, and will continue to do so if we do not face the problem honestly and with a firm commitment to change.
''Now is a particularly critical time for ''Gender Talk'' because of what we perceive to be an embattled Black, mostly male leadership, a deepening crisis in Black male-female relationships, an embrace of patriarchal family values, and a backlash against feminism and Black feminists,'' write the authors.
Betsch Cole and Guy-Sheftall assert that these conventional patriarchal leaders and the roles that they affirm stifle the very creativity, compassion and genius that is at the heart of our community's power.
If Black men are taught that developing their masculinity is the sole route to self-empowerment, the authors state, they will likely be trapped acting out the violent and super-sexualized roles that mainstream White culture has ear-marked as ''Black male identity.'' They will never, in fact, discover the other parts of their identity that could actually enable them to reach their potential (such as their intellect and their compassion).
Conversely, if Black women are taught that the only way to nurture their families and communities is to submit to abuse at the hands of our partners or risk being called a ''race traitor,'' we will never be able to break the cycle and achieve empowerment for ourselves or for our children.
Betsch Cole and Guy-Sheftall write, ''Privileging racism over sexism has not worked well in the past, and it will not solve the current problems Black America faces... Perhaps Black women's willingness to put men's interests first also set the stage for today's gender wars.''
The authors state that this gender revolution must permeate the Black social and political institutions, hip-hop music, and the Black church.
''Perhaps it is not surprising that African American men, who were prohibited from exercising power in other public arenas, would be adamant about maintaining authority in the one institution they did manage to control, Black churches. Their embrace of patriarchy in Black churches was aided by passages in the Bible that support the subordination of women,'' write Betsch Cole and Guy-Sheftall.
They also indict the Black church for prolonging the AIDS/HIV crisis in Black communities: ''When Black ministers gathered at a conference in 1980, there was the unbelievable charge: 'AIDS is not our problem. We're not going to let them [Whites] blame this on us,' which confirmed the charge among many Black gay activists that at the beginning of the epidemic the Black church had turned a deaf ear on one of our most devastating problems.''
“Gender Talk” criticizes the Black press for similarly lending a deaf ear to issues of sexism and homophobia.
Although insightful and even visionary at moments, “Gender Talk's” most disappointing section is the chapter on hip-hop music. In this chapter, the usually clear-eyed Betsch Cole and Guy-Sheftall present the all-too familiar and muddied analysis of the entire genre of hip-hip music as mysogonist. They even go so far as to suggest that censorship may be required in order to combat the music's detrimental effects on the vulnerable adolescent mind.
Unfortunately, the authors fail to see that the fault does not lie in the music, but in the apparatus that promotes certain strains of hip-hop above others. There are plenty of hip-hop artists presenting complicated ideas about gender – try Me'Shell N'Degeocello, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Common, or even Minnesota's own Edupo. However, these artists do not have the marketing machine that 50 Cent or Kelis does, and never will – precisely because their messages are subversive.
This particular Gen Xer wishes that Baby Boomers would quit blaming the messengers (hip-hop) and get onto to dismantling the system.
Overall, however, “Gender Talk” is a tight and compelling read, filled with analyses, questions and new projects regarding Black gender roles that could keep you busy for the rest of 2004 – and beyond. It is a much-needed antidote to the steady stream of conventional messages from the mainstream Black establishment about what plagues our community, and what we need to do about it.
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