Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
October 26, 2011
Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth
This blog was originally posted on Ms. Magazine’s blog
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/10/25/alice-walker-beauty-in-truth/
I am the woman: Dark,
repaired, healed
Listening to you. …
—Alice Walker, from her poem “Remember?”
For more than four decades, Alice Walker has used the written word to make visible that which has been made invisible as a result of exploitation and marginalization. Equally as important, she is a humanitarian and social-change agent who has literally put her body on the line for peace and justice. Alice Walker walks her talk. Her living example has inspired and challenged countless individuals around the world to live fully engaged, compassionate lives.
People had a problem with my disinterest in submission. And they had a problem with my intellect, and they had a problem with my choice of lovers … and they had a problem with my choice of everything … so, choose one, choose all, they just had a problem. …
Novelist, essayist, poet, short-story writer, anthologist, teacher, editor, publisher, womanist and activist, Walker is a preeminent American writer–the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1983, for her ground breaking novel The Color Purple. She also received the National Book Award, and The Color Purple was subsequently made into both a successful film and Broadway musical.
On a very personal level, were it not for her groundbreaking art and activism, along with that of other second-wave Black women writers and cultural workers, my documentary film NO! The Rape Documentary—which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence and healing in African American communities—would probably not exist. I, along with so many others, literally and metaphorically stand upon Alice Walker’s shoulders.
And if there were ever a time for the world to have a visual record of Alice Walker’s inspiring journey, now is it.
Internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker Pratibha Parmar has joyously and boldly taken on the auspicious responsibility of documenting the life of her longtime friend in the feature-length Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth. The two women first met in 1991, when Parmar’s dear friend, the late poet and activist June Jordan, along with activist and scholar Angela Davis, introduced the two women. At the time Parmar was in production on A Place of Rage, a documentary for British television on African American women and their role in the U.S. civil rights movement. Two years later, Parmar and Walker were working together, on the poignant and powerful documentary Warrior Marks about female genital mutilation (FGM). The idea came from Walker, who at the time was completing her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, which explored the life of a genitally mutilated African woman. Back then, voices speaking out against such atrocities were barely acknowledged in the global arena, but Warrior Marks played an important part in encouraging international AID organizations to not treat FGM as culture, but as torture. In addition to the film, Walker and Parmar co-authored the book Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women.
I don’t believe there is a filmmaker more suited or committed to make an Alice Walker documentary than Pratibha Parmar.
Since starting the film four years ago, along with her partner and producer Shaheen Haq, Parmar has captured a wide range of voices to give insight on Walker, including Gloria Steinem, Yoko Ono, Steven Spielberg, Angela Davis, the late Howard Zinn, Danny Glover, Brenda Russell, Tony Award-winner LaChanze, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Jewelle Gomez, Evelyn C. White, Allee Willis, Quincy Jones, Jack Kornfield and Arisaka Razak. But as anyone familiar with filmmaking knows, researching and producing a film is one thing; taking it through the expensive land of post-production and into theaters is another.
Parmar and Haq are now in critical need of funding to get this important documentary film across the finish line. They hope to release the film in 2012 to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of The Color Purple. They already have a broadcast deal with PBS’ American Masters, but part of the filmmakers’ agreement with PBS is that, for cinematic integrity’s sake, none of the featured interviewees, including Alice Walker, can contribute any funding towards the project.
That’s where the rest of us can step in. With their credit cards maxed, Parmar and Haq have started a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise a minimum of $50,000. Their ultimate goal is triple that, since they need $150,000 to complete the film.
I was humbled and honored to be asked by Pratibha Parmar to join the fundraising team. Alice Walker’s ongoing contributions to making this world a more humane place is profound. And while I always credit my teacher and mentor, the late Black feminist writer and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara, with helping me find myself as a Black feminist lesbian cultural worker, Parmar’s films–especially A Place of Rage–played a pivotal role in shifting my gaze and challenging me to use the moving image to make compassionately humane revolution irresistible.
To date more than 20 percent of the $50,000 minimum has been raised. Now the filmmakers have less than two months to raise the rest, so time is of the essence. Donations begin at $10 and go up to $10,000. Pledges are accepted internationally.
With most independent films, especially those made by and about radical women who do not conform to patriarchal and racialized definitions of womanhood (whatever that means!), it takes a global village to transform these womanist/feminist visions into celluloid/digital realities. If there is any doubt about the importance of Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth, I invite and encourage you to view the breathtaking trailer for the film to get a taste of what’s to come with the of the completed film.
As Angela Davis’ so eloquently says in the film,
All of Alice’s writings urge us to think differently and to think critically often about those things we most take for granted. I think that’s what can change the world.
Here’s where you can offer critically needed financial support to Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth.
Photo of (left to right) Pratibha Parmar, Alice Walker and Shaheen Haq, by Trish Govoni
Another Black Feminist Critique of the film “The Help”
October 7, 2011
I’m ‘Help(ed)’ Out And Yet, I Still Have Some Things To Say!
This essay originally appeared at AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives blog on August 19, 2011.
There have been numerous primarily Black feminist critiques of both the book and the film ‘The Help’. Most of the critiques deeply resonate with my feelings about both entities. Since it’s official release on August 10, 2011, I’ve dedicated probably too much time to reading and reposting many of the critiques by both Black and White women. While I’ve shared some of my concerns with some, I haven’t compiled all of them into one note up until now…
I didn’t like the book ‘The Help’ at all, but I believe it is ten times better than the film. If there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, I wouldn’t care at all about the film ‘The Help’. However, since there aren’t that many films out there, combined with the fact that this film will be seen globally and probably go down in cinematic history as a classic, I’m personally very, very clear about my sheer disgust about it.
I saw the movie at a sneak promotional viewing and I was horrified. Now, I thought Viola Davis’ acting was phenomenal and Octavia Spencer’s was superb. They both did incredible work with the roles that they were given. In spite of this, I was and am deeply disturbed by the film’s subtle and not-so subtle racism. Yes, I know the film takes place in 1962 Mississippi, and one could argue that the film was depicting the time. While some of that is true, what’s also true is that, in my opinion, the film is racist, sexist and ahistorical.
I’m the great granddaughter, great-niece, and granddaughter of Black women who worked as domestics for racist and sexist White people both in the Jim Crow South and the (allegedly liberated) North. I am the daughter of a southern Black woman who spent 18-months (1964-1966) in Laurel, Mississippi working for SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). Hardly any of the stories that I heard, first hand throughout my life (and I’m in my 40s) from any of the aforementioned women or their friends, matched the portrayal of the Black women and their communities in the book or the film ‘The Help.’
There are many wonderful books by Black women authors who through fiction and fact poignantly address the realities of Black women domestic workers during the same time period that ‘The Help’ takes place. Some of those books received critical acclaim. And yet, those books aren’t turned into films. Several of those books have been listed in previous critiques of ‘The Help’ including Jennifer Williams essay and the Association of Black Women Historian’s Open Statement to the Fans of ‘The Help.’
In addition to those books, I reflect upon the very recently released Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women In SNCC, (edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner), which really highlights those unsung, many of whom were not formally educated women who changed the face of Amer-i-KKK-a in the Jim Crow South. I’m not talking about the multiracial SNCC workers themselves (per se); but those Black women (and men) who opened their homes and lives to the SNCC volunteers… Many of who were already doing radical and subversive work in the midst of working for “Miss Ann”… So many of the testimonies captured in this anthology are worthy of film or even their own independent book. In my mind’s eye, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC tells the stories of ordinary women (and men) doing extraordinary work.
My deep pain about all of the hoopla and fanfare about ‘The Help’ has to do with the fact that we very rarely EVER see a film where the sheer White male and female supremacist terror that Black people lived under (first during enslavement -which lasted for centuries, then throughout the Jim Crow era) is depicted. From DW Griffiths ‘The Birth Of A Nation,’ til present day, Hollywood has been committed to sanitizing and making light of excruciatingly painful, wretched, and inhumane times for millionS of African-Americans. This system has been able to do this through castigating, maligning, stereotyping, marginalizing, and dehumanizing people of African descent. There is something very uncanny and disturbing about this, to say the very least.
While some have critiqued Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and other Black actresses featured in ‘The Help,’ I understand that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s hard out here for Black women (and men) actors in the Hollywood (or Hollyweird, as Toni Cade Bambara used to call it) system. When one turns down a role based on their principles and dignity, another one will gladly accept that role. I’m sad that roles in ‘The Help’ are the options for phenomenal actresses like Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. In many ways, it appears as if this vicious racist and sexist cycle will never ever get broken.
My questions are how do we stop this powerful system – Hollywood, which influences the world, from its ongoing cinematic racist, sexist, heterosexist/homophobic/ transphobic, and classist assaults not only on communities of African descent, but also on Latina/o, Arab, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific, Islander, Roma (Gypsy), and Southwest Asian communities…? When does ENOUGH become ENOUGH?
I’m concerned about the messages that are conveyed through ‘The Help.’ If you aren’t formally educated, you need a White woman to document and tell your story in order for it to get heard… Then the White woman leaves town to make it big in NYC, and you’re safe(?) in 1960s White Supremacist Terrorist Mississippi after getting fired for breaking your silence…? Or, your battered by your Black husband, and the White woman you taught how to cook, stays up all night to prepare the most delicious meal you’ve ever had. You were so moved by that meal, that you leave your abusive husband.
Foremost, are we really okay with these types of depictions of White women as the sole saviors to Black women’s lives, which are presented as historical fact? Equally as important, is this an accurate HERstory? And if it is, which I doubt, how often did this happen? Was there real Sisterhood based on equality between Black women domestic workers and their White women employers? How does this story foster sisterhood based on equality between Black and White women contemporarily?
To quote Black feminist political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry “’The Help’ reduces systematic, violent racism, sexism & labor exploitation to a cat fight that can be won with cunning spunk.”
Again, if there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, then ‘The Help’ would be another film… But, it’s not another film. For many, painfully similar to how the ahistorical film ‘Mississippi Burning’ became the cinematic representation of the disappearance of civil rights workers ~Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney; ‘The Help’ will be the cinematic representation of life for Black women domestic workers and their White women employers in Mississippi in the1960s.
To add insult to injury, the HSN (Home Shopping Network) has launched its on collection, inspired by ‘The Help.’ This is SO egregious and inhumane. In my opinion, it’s another example of how a painful part of African-American her/history (and what should be an embarrassing part of American her/history) has been sanitized and commodofied. To quote my Sister, Patricia Lesesne, “What are they {HSN} selling? Bullets, rape kits, nooses, tear-stained blouses, men’s dress shirts with blood spattered on them? Exactly which pieces from this time in US history are going to be sold on the HSN? Are they going to bottle up the essence of fear, terror, and humiliation in 6oz bottles and sell them as a fragrance trio gift set. What the hell is going on?” Yes, Patricia, what the HELL is going on in 2011?
One way we can resist this insanity is by supporting (non-Hollywood supported/funded) Independent Cinema. There are many, many filmmakers who are creating powerful narrative and documentary films, which depict the complexities of lives of people who, based on their race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, class and/or religion, are too often marginalized or worse, dehumanized by the Hollywood system.
If you see ‘The Help’, be an engaged spectator. It’s important that there is critical engagement and interrogation, even if, sigh and gasp, you LOVE the film. I think it’s important that all movie goers take time to really reflect upon the inherent messages not only in ‘The Help’ but all movies because there are always overt and covert messages that each one of us absorbs.
*******************
Beah Richards’ (unfortunately) timeless (one-woman) play “A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood” is in my opinion, the best response to Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help”. Written in 1951, it is still most appropriate.
http://afrolez.tumblr.com/post/7967989547/a-black-woman-speaks-of-white-womanhood-by-beah
List of Critiques of “The Help” by Black Women, which are listed in alphabetical order. (I know there are more than those that are listed. This list represents the ones that I read).
- Association of Black Women Historians’ Open Statement to Fans of ‘The Help’
http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2:open-statement-the-help&catid=1:latest-news - ‘The Help’: A Feel Good Movie For White People by Valerie Boyd
http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-help-a-feel-good-movie-for-white-people/ - “The Help” and White Female Identity by Stephanie Crumpton
http://www.urbancusp.com/newspost/the-help-and-white-female-identity/ - Kathryn Stockett Is Not My Sister and I’m Not Her Help by Miriam Harris
http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/08/12/kathryn-stockett-is-not-my-sister-and-i-am-not-her-help/ - Melissa Harris Perry Breaks Down The Help: ‘Ahistorical And Deeply Troubling’ (by Frances Martel)
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/ - Chocolate Breast Milk: A Review of ‘The’ Help by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
http://phillisremastered.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/chocolate-breast-milk-a-review-of-the-help/ - No thanks Kathryn Stockett, I don’t want to be “The Help” by Joyce Ladner
http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/ - I’m Good Why The Help Isn’t Needed by Tonya Pendleton
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles%2Fentertainment%2Fmovies%2F30500%2F1#.Tio6nUx61YI
- Why I Will Not See ‘The Help’: A Rant by Rosetta Ross
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/4991/ - Second (and Third, and Fourth…) Helpings: A Big Black Woman’s Thoughts on “The Help” by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/08/19/second-and-third-and-fourth…-helpings-a-big-black-woman’s-thoughts-on-the-help/
- Why I’m Not Looking Forward to ‘The Help’ by Jennifer Williams
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/08/10/why-im-not-looking-forward-to-the-help/ - Love ‘The Help,’ But Please Stop Asking Me To Do The Same by Rebecca Wanzo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-wanzo/the-help-movie_b_925550.html
List of Critiques of ‘The Help’ by White Women, which are listed in alphabetical order. (I sincerely hope there are more than those listed here. This list represents the ones that I read)
- Reading The Help by Susannah Bartlow
http://susannahbartlow.blogspot.com/2011/08/reading-help-reposted-from-facebook.html - For Colored Only? Understanding ‘The Help’ Through The Lens of White Womanhood by Claire Potter
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2011/08/for-colored-only-the-role-of-white-women-in-the-help/ - ‘The Help’: Softening Segregation for a Feel-Good Flick by Alyssa Rosenberg
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-help-softening-segregation-for-a-feel-good-flick/243395/ - On ‘The Help’ And Moral Reckonings by Alyssa Rosenberg
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/08/10/292646/on-the-help-and-moral-reckonings/
“Woman is the ‘N’ of the World?” (at SlutWalk?)
October 7, 2011
Woman is the “N” of the World?
This essay originally appeared at AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives blog, and Ms. Magazine blog.
In 1969, Yoko Ono coined the phrase, and I quote, “Woman is the N****R of the World.” Shortly thereafter, she and her husband, the late John Lennon, wrote and he recorded a song with that same title.
According to Wikipedia (which is ALWAYS questionable), at that time (don’t know where they would stand today) Dick Gregory and Ron Dellums defended the song.
Several Black feminists, including Pearl Cleage, challenged Yoko Ono’s racist (to Black women) statement. “If Woman is the “N” of the World, what does that make Black Women, the “N, N” of the World?”
Fast forward 42-years later from when it was originally coined, and a White woman decides to create and carry a placard of the quote to SlutWalk NYC.
I’ve been informed that one of the (Black) women SlutWalk NYC organizers asked the woman to take her placard down. She did. However, not before there were many photographs taken.
My question is, Why did it take a Black woman organizer to ask her to take it down? What about all of the White women captured in this photograph? They didn’t find this sign offensive? Paraphrasing Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I A Woman (too!)?”
ERADICATING RACISM SHOULD NOT BE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR.
How can so many White feminists be absolutely clear about the responsibility of ALL MEN TO END heterosexual violence perpetrated against women, and yet turn a blind eye to THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO END racism?
Is Sisterhood Global? This picture says NO! very loudly and very clearly.
The fact that this quote originates from a woman of color, Yoko Ono, really underscores the work that we women of color must do to educate each other about our respective herstories. This photograph also underscores the imperative need for hardcore inter-racial dialogues among all of us in these complicated movements to address gender-based violence in all of our non-monolithic communities.
Co-signing with my Sister Andrea Plaid that at the fundamental level this photograph speaks to the very sobering reality that there is a level of acceptable racism going on within (some?) SlutWalkS (not a monolith).
There is something deeply uncanny that, in 2011, this White woman would think it was OK to create and carry a sigh with the “N” word at a SlutWalk. What on earth was she thinking? Who in the United States of Ameri-KKK-a doesn’t know that the “N” word is NOT okay to use, most especially if you’re not Black.
POSTSCRIPT: I have supported and still support the premise of SlutWalks. In August I participated as a speaker at SlutWalk Philly.
I discuss the reasons why I, as a Black feminist lesbian incest and rape survivor, have supported the premise of SlutWalks in fairly great detail in my September 30 interview with Where Is Your Line?
At the same time, I think it’s very important that everyone read and discuss the very important and poignant concerns raised in Black Women’s Blueprint’s “Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk.”
Clearly there is an urgent and non-negotiable need for dialogues to happen in the immediate future.
Here is a short list of selected essays by some Black (American) Feminists who have weighed in on the horrific impact of both the sign and the defense of the sign.
Crunk Feminist Collective “I Saw the Sign but Did We Really Need a Sign?”
http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2011…
Akiba Solomon’s “More Thoughts on SlutWalk: No Attention is Better Than Bad Attention” – COLORLINES
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/10/more_thoug…
LaToya Peterson’s “Which Women Are What Now? Slutwalk NYC and Failures in Solidarity” | RACIALICIOUS
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/05/which-wome…
and
“Slutwalk, Slurs, and Why Feminism Still Has Race Issues” | RACIALICIOUS
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/06/slutwalk-s…
UPDATE: Kimberlynn Acevedo, one of SlutWalk NYC’s organizers has posted a statement in response to the sign, and has announced plans to continue the dialogue.
Here is an excerpt:
One of our march’s participants last Saturday held up and promulgated a racist, offensive sign. She was asked to take it down by one of our organizers as soon as it came to our attention. This sign symbolizes many of the critiques about SlutWalk not being a safe space for people of color, in particular Black women. We are taking it seriously and we absolutely condemn it and are horrified by it. This sign opposes the mission of SlutWalk NYC and its message is in direct conflict with the beliefs of its organizers. …
We are meeting with many of the groups which have critiqued SlutWalk NYC directly. We are meeting with Black Women’s Blueprint. We are attending an open meeting with Sister Song. We are holding a completely open meeting on October 13 at Walker Stage from 6-8 p.m. in order to discuss how to build a fighting movement. Further, we encourage everyone to take a look at the transcripts and videos of the speeches we have posted on our website and Facebook. We know we need to grow. We have been working on growth from the beginning. There were powerful, diverse and engaging speeches at the rally, many of which directly hit upon critiques of SlutWalk. THESE are the seeds of growth in our organization. We want to start a movement that passionately wants include the voices of all people, of all survivors, of all individuals who see merit in what it is that we are choosing to combat.
We hope you will join us.
Where Is Your Line? Interviews Aishah Shahidah Simmons
October 7, 2011
AISHAH SHAHIDAH SIMMONS FEATURED IN WHERE IS YOUR LINE’S? ‘‘BADASS ACTIVIST FRIDAY PRESENTS”
On Friday, September 30th, Aishah Shahidah Simmons was thrilled to be the interview partner for Where Is Your Line’s “Badass Activist Friday Series.”
In this very extensive interview, Aishah talked about Toni Cade Bambara, Vipassana Meditation, People of Color practicing the teachings of Buddha, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (the film), Liberation from Within (the film), NO! The Rape Documentary, Rape, Incest, Consent, Celibacy, Palestine, Troy Anthony Davis, SlutWalk, and Wangari Maathai.
photographed by Calvin Finley
It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and?Just Start Doing.
My interview partner this week is?Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. She’s the producer, writer and director of?NO! The Rape Documentary, and she screens her work all around the world. You can follow her and her work at?@AfroLez and?@InnerLiberation.
Here’s what we talked about:
You’re a filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. That’s a lot of hats to wear. Why don’t you start by telling us what your day-to-day works looks like right now.
Yes, it is a lot of hats to wear, which is why I also use cultural worker. That term was taught to me in 1990 by?Toni Cade Bambara, who was a Black feminist cultural worker extraordinaire, my teacher, and my Big Sista-friend. Every day is literally a new and different day. However, there are some things that rarely change. I’m a practitioner of?vipassana meditation. Part of my practice is to meditatively sit twice a day, every day for an hour at each sitting. I used to be and, at times, I still am very resistant to sitting because I viewed it as a time obstacle to my doing my cultural work. Life experiences, however, consistently show me that sitting is a non-negotiable resource that enables me to do my cultural work. After sitting, I do some form of exercise (walking or swimming are my preferences) and then I’m usually able to begin the external work. I check my email, facebook, and twitter accounts. I also check various blogs and other sites. If I allow it, the aforementioned can very literally consume my entire day and night because it’s non-stop action on the cyber highway…
CLICK HERE TO READ IN ITS ENTIRETY
http://whereisyourline.org/2011/09/badass-activist-friday-presents-aishah-shahidah-simmons/
Gloria Steinem and NO! The Rape Documentary
October 7, 2011
Gloria Steinem and NO! The Rape Documentary
Originally appeared at The Feminist Wire on September 23, 2011
http://thefeministwire.com/2011/09/gloria-steinem-and-no-the-rape-documentary/
Gloria Steinem is a Second Wave White Feminist pioneer who, for over 40 years and counting, has been at the forefront and often a spokesperson for women’s rights in the United States and globally. Since the late 1960s, Steinem has either founded or co-founded several women-led organizations, which have impacted the lives of millions of women across this country and internationally. These organizations include:the Women’s Action Alliance,the National Women’s Political Caucus,the Coalition of Labor Union Women,the Ms. Foundation for Women,Choice USA, and most recently theWomen’s Media Center. A co-founding editor of Ms. magazine in 1972, she still serves as a consulting editor in 2011.
Throughout the majority of her activist life, Steinem has had strong alliances and been engaged in political and professional partnerships with a wide range of known and unknown Black women activists and writers. In the August 15, 2011 SFGate article Gloria Steinem had strong influence on [B]lack women, Black feminist author Evelyn C. White wrote:
As national treasurer of the 1970s-era Free Angela Davis campaign, Steinem was a critical link in the legal defense of the Oakland scholar then jailed for her radical politics. She crafted the television speech that black Rep. Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) delivered in her historic 1972 bid for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. And it was at Steinem?s direction that Ms., in the early 1970s, began to publish Alice Walker and later appointed her one of the first black editors at the magazine. This, long before the author won international acclaim for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple
Steinem’s activism and journalism have played a pivotal role in co-creating a feminist lens on a wide range of issues including but not limited to reproductive rights, political activism, union organizing, politics of representation in media/journalism, opposition to wars in Vietnam and the Gulf (past and contemporarily), lesbian and gay rights, female genital mutilation, pornography, and same-sex marriage. Her essays, articles, and bestselling books are viewed as classic feminist writings from which many view as road maps on their own activist journeys.
I am a 42-year old Black feminist lesbian who identifies as a member of the generation of Third Wave Feminists. I was raised in two households (my mother’s and my father’s) where women’s liberation was never viewed as being in contradiction to Black liberation. My mother,Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, was the first self-identified feminist I ever knew. I would definitely say that based on how they lived their lives, my grandmothers and great-aunts were feminists, though they never used that term to describe themselves. As a result of my rearing from both my mother and my father,Michael Simmons, I always thought both women?s liberation and Black liberation were necessary. Since adolescence, I’ve understood that I could not have one without the other. I have been consciously pro-choice/pro women’s reproductive freedom since I was ten years old. I have called myself a feminist since I was a teenager.
Additionally, in both of my homes, a subscription to Ms. magazine was as important as a subscription to Essence magazine (this was in the 1970s and 1980s when Essence was a much more radical magazine than it is today). Gloria Steinem’s writings occupied space on the bookshelves in both of my divorced parents’ homes. When I came of age as a young woman, I purchased Gloria’s books for my own emerging library(along with the books of numerous Black feminist writers including?but not limited toToni Cade Bambara,Audre Lorde,Alice Walker,ntozake shange,Barbara Smith,bell hooks,Pat Parker,Beverly Guy-Sheftall,Toni Morrison,Sonia Sanchez,June Jordan, andPearl Cleage). I also subscribed to Ms. and Essence magazines. Up until 2004, I don’t believe I had any direct contact with Gloria Steinem, but I certainly was inspired by her activism and followed it closely.
I virtually met Gloria Steinem in the fall of 2004 through Kevin Powell, a dear friend, comrade, and one of the earlier supporters of the making of my documentary NO!. At that time, I was in my tenth year of financially struggling to make this feature-length documentary, which would unveil the realities of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African American communities. I literally thought I was at the end of my rope; and couldn’t take another step further. I wrote and sent out an email to group of people including, definitely, Kevin. The email was a serious cry for help. In response to my plea, Kevin forwarded my email to a select group in his network of friends and colleagues with the hope that someone would be able to financially assist me and help push me either closer to or over the finish line. Gloria Steinem was one of those people to whom Kevin forwarded my email.
Upon receiving the email from Kevin, Gloria immediately reached out and applauded me on my efforts and commitment to forge ahead in spite of the resistance. She reminded me that feminist truth telling is very rarely easy and hardly ever rewarded. Gloria also shared information about the Gloria Fund at the Ms. Foundation for Women, a possible funding source. Now, I need to underscore that while I knew who Gloria Steinem was, I did not know Gloria and she did not know me. Gloria wrote me without having viewed a trailer or the rough cut of NO!. To the best of my knowledge, other than reading Kevin’s email introducing me followed by my email, she had no additional information about NO! (i.e., no proposal, brochure, flyer, etc.). And yet, she responded to her friend and comrade, Kevin Powell’s, call to support a Black woman making a film about addressing and ending sexual violence in African-American communities. She wrote me to offer moral support and to strategize about how I may be able to secure funding.
There are many instances on my 11-year journey to make NO! where I was completely humbled. Many of those instances include receiving support, both behind and in front of the NO! camera lens and from trailblazing women whose activism, scholarship, and cultural work literally broke the ground upon which I stood. Gloria Steinem reaching out to me was one of those profoundly memorable moments.
I received a post-production grant from the Gloria Steinem Fund of the Ms. Foundation for Women, which literally kept me from failing financially. Equally as important, Gloria’s email in response to my email via Kevin (which I have in my NO! archives), arrived in my inbox at that right moment. I will always be grateful to Kevin for his unwavering support of NO!, expressed in a myriad of ways, including his introducing me to Gloria Steinem. I also remain grateful to Gloria Steinem for reaching out to a stranger trying to and ultimately completing her Black feminist documentary.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view Gloria: In Her Own Words, during its broadcast run on HBO. Unfortunately, I don’t have HBO. I look forward, however, to viewing it either online with a friend/colleague who has a subscription to HBO, or when it’s available on DVD. I have, however, made note of my Sister Shelby Knox’s appreciation of the HBO documentary while also wishing for a deeper treatment of Gloria Steinem’s philosophy and activism. Additionally and again admitting that I have not seen the program, based on what I read about the documentary, by Dana Goldstein, I’m concerned that there may not be many voices (not solely archival footage of) of women of Color who worked with Gloria over the past 40-years.
Clearly, there have been and are struggles around race and (mis)representation in the mainstream feminist movement. As a result of these struggles, tremendous inroads were made in this movement over the past 40-years. I believe that is a testament to the multi-racial metaphorical and literal kitchen table gatherings where some of the most difficult and at times painful dialogues took place. Gloria initiated some of those dialogues. She existed as an integral part of many of those dialogues. Furthermore, she has been challenged and, as a result, has changed because of those dialogues. This is a part of Gloria’s legacy that younger feminists of all races need to know, as many of these struggles remain as real today as yesterday. One need not look any further than the overwhelming Black feminist critical responses to the recent release of the film The Help in comparison to the minimal White feminist critical responses to the film.
As a documentary filmmaker, I know the power the moving image to document her/histories. While I’m elated there is a documentary film that chronicles significant parts of Gloria’s journey called life, I most definitely agree with my Sister Shelby, who is almost twenty years younger than I,when she wrote “those of us who consider ourselves active duty members of today’s feminist movement, would be better served with more information about Gloria the radical, forward-thinking activist that she continues to be than about ‘St. Gloria.”"
If you missed Gloria: In Her Own Words, and have a subscription to HBO, it is available for viewing online through HBO Go until December 31, 2011. If you’re able, view it and join the Women’s Media Center’s ‘In Your Own Words,’ campaign.
No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed ~ SlutWalk Philadelphia Speech
August 12, 2011
“What’s the Right Message?” asks Aishah Shahidah Simmons in her SlutWalk Philadelphia Speech”
“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.”
— Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider —
Black. Lesbian. Feminist. Mother. Warrior. Poet. Audre Lorde’s written words taught me that my silence will not protect me, and that silence is not golden. I am a Black feminist lesbian who is a survivor of incest and rape. When I was ten, my paternal (step)grandfather molested me over a period of two years; and when I was 12 the eldest son of a family friend fondled me. My rape happened when I was a soon to be 20 year old sophomore in college. I was on a study abroad program and broke all of the university-enforced rules to go out, very late at night, with the man who would become my rapist. In spite of my having second thoughts about going out with this new acquaintance, I was both afraid to articulate them and to turn around because my friends were covering for me. In the hotel room, for which I paid, I told my rapist “I don’t want to do this. Please stop.” I didn’t “violently” fight back. I didn’t scream or yell to the top of my lungs” because I was afraid. I didn’t want to make a “scene.” I blamed myself for saying, “Yes”…for breaking the rules…for paying for the hotel room.
The morning following my rape, I went back to where the school housed us and lied to my friends. I didn’t tell them that I was forced to have sex against my will. In an effort to both deny what happened on the night of my rape and to be in control of my body, I had consensual sex with another man that evening. When it was time to return home to the United States, I was pregnant and didn’t know which of the two men was the biological father. I was fortunate to have a safe and legal abortion at the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women in Philadelphia, PA.
And, before I continue, I want to be explicitly and unequivocally clear that I am NOT a lesbian because I was molested and raped. I am a lesbian because I’m attracted to and love women. So, please do not walk away making the homophobic and heterosexist comment “Oh, that’s why Aishah is a lesbian. It’s because she was molested and raped.”
WRONG.
If molestation and rape made women and girls lesbians, then most of the girls and women in the world would be lesbians. Just check the global statistics on molestation and rape.
I share what some of you might view as personal, private—and perhaps—seemingly unnecessary because the personal is directly related not only to the political but also the professional in my life.
Now, I admit when Executive Organizer Hannah Altman invited me to be a speaker at SlutWalk Philadelphia, I was very, very apprehensive. However, after quite a bit of thought and deliberation; and in spite of my many conflicting feelings as a Black feminist lesbian whose contemporary reality and ancestral lineage has been rooted in the legalized name calling/marginalizing/denigration of mind/body/spirit for centuries without too much recourse, I accepted the invitation to be a speaker.
I am here today because I want to see an end to the victim-blaming in my lifetime, and I’m 42-years old. No, victim-blaming is not going to stop because we are all here participating in SlutWalk Philadelphia. If only it were that easy. However, I believe it is important that the faces, voices, and perspectives of women of color (inclusive of all sexualities) and trans people of color are seen and heard. Documented herstory and contemporary reality has shown us that more often than not, it is our bodies that catch the most hell not only by the State but also by people in and out of our communities (however we define them). It is our bodies that have a demonstrated track record of being on the frontlines of the movements to end all forms of oppression.
I believe words are very, very powerful. At the same time, I really struggle with many who are hostile to the “SlutWalks” because they say it gives the wrong message. What is the right message? I think about Take Back the Night, which was founded in the early ’70s, when I was a toddler. As strange as it may seem today, especially now that Take Back the Night has become an “acceptable” movement throughout this country and globally, I know there was resistance. I’m sure some, if not many people took the position, ‘What do you mean take back the night? You shouldn’t be out at night!’
Personally, I do not embrace the word Slut at all… And, at the same time, I will not say or subscribe to the patriarchal and misogynistic thinking that “we can’t do this or that type of behavior; or wear this or that type of clothing and not expect to get harassed, fondled, and/or raped.
There are some places in the world that would say that presently, I’m not properly covered in what I view as very modest attire (by most US standards). There are many in the United States; and throughout the world who believe I should be raped, assaulted, and/or harassed for the mere fact that I’m an unapologetically OUT Feminist Lesbian.
Where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be rape, assaulted, harassed, and/or called vicious and vitriolic names? Why are we okay with RAPE being the penalty for ANY type of behavior (including heterosexual women having multiple sexual partners) or for wearing ANY type of attire of clothing (including thongs and bustier? ). This line of thinking is inhumane, egregious, wretched, and should be unacceptable.
Sexual violence is one of the only crimes where the victim behavior’s determines if a crime happened or not. I could be in a drug-infested neighborhood with a lot of money on my person and even bragging about my money and showing it off. If someone steals my money, they are a thief, plain and simple. Yes, one could say “Aishah, what were you doing with all that money in that neighborhood. Are you crazy?” And yet, at the same time, it would be clear that I was robbed. If I left my macbook pro in Starbucks and someone stole it, we may think I was dumb for leaving it there, but that doesn’t take away the fact that someone stole my macbook pro.
How can we have more empathy for the loss of money or even the loss of a computer than the (hopefully, temporary) loss of one’s body for a few seconds, moments, hours, or even days? Why do we tend to be clear about the impact of the loss of material possessions in ways that we don’t want to be clear about the impact of the loss of the right to ones own body. For too many, rape has become a word, almost devoid of the horrifying experience from which too many of us never ever fully recover.
There is something very disturbing and painful that there is this widespread (as in global) notion that material possessions are worth more than a woman’s body… There is something wrong that too many of us believe that a woman doesn’t have the right to show or flaunt her body, if she desires… That a woman doesn’t have a right to agree to one form of sexual activity and not agree to another form of sexual activity. That she doesn’t have the right to say “yes,” and then have the courage or even the audacity to change her mind and say “no.” Whose body is it anyway? Contrary to global belief, it’s not the perpetrators body. And yet, too many of us defend the perpetrators RIGHT to violate the body of another.
When will we stop treating boys and men as if they are wild beastly animals or innocent toddlers (not sure which one) who can’t control their words and/or actions? When will we put the blame on the perpetrators? When will we stop saying “Well, women have to take some responsibility?” Take responsibility for what, men and boys being unable to control themselves resulting in them violating a woman or girl’s body because of what she said, wore, and/or did?
Really.?!
Again, I ask where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be assaulted, harassed, and/or raped? As long as there is any group of people including but not limited to adolescent and teenage “fast” girls, women, trans people, queer people, and sex workers who are marginalized, then all of us are vulnerable both because it’s all subjective; and the lines of the margins shift all of the time. Who’s acceptable today may not be acceptable tomorrow.
We must stop subscribing to this notion that rape is the justifiable penalty for ANY type of behavior or attire of clothing that we may not like or even disapprove of.
We must centralize the margins of the margins of the margins of society so that ALL of us are free from assault, harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed. NO ONE IS FREE WHILE OTHERS ARE OPPRESSED.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the producer/writer/director of NO! The Rape Documentary., the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature length film, which examines the international atrocity of rape and other forms of sexual violence through the first person testimonies, scholarship, activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. You can follow her on twitter, connect with her on Facebook, and/or read her AfroLez®femcentric blog.
Philadelphia Weekly Covers SlutWalk Philadelphia
August 12, 2011
Philadelphia Weekly Excerpts Part of Aishah Shahidah Simmons SlutWalk Philadelphia Speech
“When poet and speaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons addresses the crowd, she comes on like a lion. “History has shown it is our bodies that catch the most hell,” she says.” Though she does not identify as a poet, Simmons most definitely spoke with passionate fire about ending all forms of sexual violence.
The Philadelphia Weekly was one of few media outlets (WHYY, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Philadelphia Gay News being the others) who gave SlutWalk Philadelphia appropriate coverage.
Click here to view Philadelphia Weekly’s “Philly’s SlutWalk Photo Gallery”.
Rape Survivors Should Not Take The Weight of Shame & Blame
August 12, 2011
Aishah Shahidah Simmons Believes Perpetrators Should Carry Responsibility for Rape, NOT the Victim/Survivors
On the eve before the SlutWalk Philadelphia, Aishah Shahidah Simmons expressed absolute clarity about who is responsible for sexual violence ~ the perpetrators.
In an August 5, 2011 WHYY NewsWorks article, Simmons said “Shame or blame should never be on the survivors. It should be put on the perpetrator. Words like slut and whore should not play a role in how we view women who have been raped or assaulted. That’s what happens: she’s a slut, she’s a whore, she deserves what she gets. For me it’s really challenging, this name-calling.”
Click here to read “‘SlutWalk’ Protest set for Saturday in Philadelphia” in its entirety.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/24345
Aishah Shahidah Simmons talks about SlutWalk with Journalist Akiba Solomon
August 12, 2011
The Relevance of SlutWalk for Black Feminists: An Interview with Aishah Shahidah Simmons by Akiba Solomon for ColorLines
On August 5, 2011, the eve of the SlutWalk Philadelphia, journalist Akiba Solomon really explored the relevance of the SlutWalk movement for Black feminists in America in her “Is the SlutWalk Movement Relevant for a Black Feminist,” article for ColorLines. Part of Akiba’s exploration features an interview with filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons about her involvement with the SlutWalk movement.
Here’s what Simmons had to say:
One of the common critiques of SlutWalk is that it isn’t racially inclusive. How did you get involved with the Philly march?
The organizers reached out to me and asked if I was willing to be one of the speakers. [At first] I was indifferent to the SlutWalk movement. I kind of cringed at the title. But the more I read about it, the more I was like, ‘Yeah!’
What bothered you about it?
Well, black women have been called sluts, whores and skank whores from the beginning. So I wondered why we would embrace the term ‘slut’ [without] any kind of analysis about what it means for all women, but especially women of color. Also, I just wasn’t sure if this was a multiracial movement. But it’s grown a lot; there’s a SlutWalk in the works in Malaysia, a Muslim country where a lot of the women are covered!
Click here to read Akiba Solomon’s article in its entirety.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/08/since_late_may_various_people.html
Aishah Shahidah Simmons featured guest on WHYY’s Radio Times
August 12, 2011
Aishah Shahidah Simmons & Rebbecca Traister talk about SlutWalk with host Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY’s Radio Times
On August 4, 2011, award-winning filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons and noted journalist and author Rebecca Traister engaged in a very lively dialogue with host Marty Moss-Coane and callers about the SlutWalk movement on WHYY’s Radio Times. Philly hosted their first SlutWalk on Saturday, August 6, 2011.
Many of the poignant issues raised and discussed on the program are very relevant to anyone interested in addressing and ending all forms of gender-based violence globally.
Click here to listen to this very provocative program.
http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2011/08/04/slut-walk-feminists-fight-back-against-rape/
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