Neophyte bloggerette Jamila makes some powerful points in response to the Feminist Commentariat’s squawking over Bristol Palin’s recently released PSA attempting to dissuade teenage girls from getting pregnant. The “Pause before you act” ad has been roundly savaged by the usual suspects, among them the popular website Feministing. Here’s Jamila’s take on the matter:
http://www.jamilaakil.com/2010/04/i-like-the-bristol-palin-pause-before-you-play-psa/
Although we’ve crossed swords a number of times in as many months, and I suspect we’ll do so quite a bit more before it’s all said and done, I have to say w/all due respect, that I think Jamila’s right on this one. Regardless of what anyone may or may not think of *any* Palin, the simple fact of the matter is that if you’re young and poor, getting pregnant and having a baby isn’t the best thing for you, the odds are tremendously stacked against you. I just don’t see how anyone with any modicum of reason can really argue with that.
But argue Jamila’s “sisters” do, and quite vociferously at that-they rail against Bristol’s *actually saying that she’s privileged* (a big no-no if you’re a true middle class type; Bristol’s “making I plain” is a dead giveaway that she and her family are “nouveau riche”) & that *she can afford to do things that poorer girls cant*. And of course, just being a Palin doesn’t help things either in Feminista Country.
While we all know, rationally, that teenage moms pretty much run the gamut racially-but, our hindbrains being what they are, the very term has come to be associated with Black, just like the term poor has come to be associated with being Black. And seen in that context, it then raises some very interesting questions for proudly self-professed Feminists like Jamila, because, well, she’s…Black.
The Black Feminist is an odd creature indeed-in many ways, they stand as the ultimate example of the triumphs of the Women’s Movement-and in others, they are utterly disregarded, as the late Audre Lourde learned firsthand.
As we’ve learned recently here at The Obsidian Files, Black Women have gained quite well from access to education, employment and the benefits of Affirmative Action. Stats clearly shows that not only do they earn significantly more than their lesser educated sisters, but they can and often do surpass their White sisters as well.
Moreover, on the question of reproductive rights, Black Women avail themselves of abortions at a rate significantly higher than all other Women racially. And those Black Women who do choose to have children on their own, have been able to get ready access to assistance ranging from daycare to housing (as Jamila herself alludes to; see her blog) when they need it. Furthermore, they have benefitted tremendously from such laws as VAWA. On just about every objective measure, it is hard to say that Black Women, taken as a group, *haven’t* benefitted in a big way, from Feminism.
Yet, the flipside is just as interesting. Quick, name a major Black leading voice among the Feminist Commentariat today. Okay, in the last decade. Alright, alright, in the last 20 years.
I’ll wait.
Hmm.
While Feministing, Jezebel and Feministe certainly do pay a great deal of lip service to notions of racial sensitivity and the like, the simple fact that you probably wasn’t able to think up any names that anyone else would instantly recognize in itself raises some powerful questions for Feminism itself, and for Black Feminists like Jamila more specifically. For the latter, they exist between a rock and a hard place, as I’ve noted above.
So, what are you thoughts and views of Black Feminism, if you will? Who are its biggest voices? What are their biggest issues and concerns? And why do they continue to have such a hard time getting facetime? Is Black Feminism, given all the undeniable gains Black Women have made, even relevant anymore?
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The Obsidian
