Black women vs the world

NKASA BOLUMBU Opinion Columnist

As reported by NBC News, Daystar Peterson, better known as Tory Lanez, was charged with the following: unregistered gun possession, assault with a firearm and gross negligence of a firearm in 2020 following a heated argument outside of Kylie Jenner’s house party. The woman he shot was Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, better known as rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Ever since she cited him as her shooter, she has endured thousands of hate comments for not staying silent and for lying.

Pete’s case is just one example of a complex sexism that is specific to Black women –misogynoir. The word misogynoir was coined by gay Black feminist Moya Bailey, Ph.D, in 2010. Misogynoir is pervasive in American culture and society.

Misogynoir is a new term, but not a new concept. It is deeply ingrained into American society due to racist ideologies. Historically, racism towards Black women meant separation of the perfect submissive White woman from the deviant Black slave.

In an article by Mia Moody about News-Media Stereotypes and the Media Analysis of Barack and Michelle Obama, Moody cites feminist theory and the representation of Black women. “Black feminists argued that Black women’s experience isn’t separable from racism.” Rather, “women of color experience sexism within the context of racism.” In the media, Black women fall into the dichotomies of either/or: unintelligent/extremely smart, hypersexual/asexual, highly attractive/undesirable and ambitious/lazy. Common stereotypes that are a result of racism present in media and culture are the jezebel trope, sapphire/angry Black woman, and the strong Black woman/ superwoman schema.

Jezebel stereotype

In the old testament of the Christian bible Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab of Israel and she used her sexuality to manipulate men to get what she wanted. In the 1600s when Europeans were making contact with Africans, they often denigrated African cultures as subhuman and profane. Semi nudity was seen as sexually promiscuous. By labeling Black people as sexually deviant to their insatiable sexual appetites, sexual abuse and assault was justifiable. Black women’s bodies were a commodity for reproductive labor and due to their slave status, they had little to no agency over sex. In our society, it means a Black body is inherently sexual and impure.

It’s very important to note that Megan Thee Stallion, who will be referred to as Pete, was not on trial nor facing any charges in the Lanez case. She was the victim. Despite this fact, a main focal point used to discredit her online was her sexual history.

During her interview with Gayle King, when asked about whether she was intimate with Lanez, she said no. She later admitted on the stand that she lied because she was ashamed she shared her body with someone who could cause her so much pain. She wishes that she had just died that night because of the backlash she has received for speaking out. Pete’s sexual history is irrelevant to the fact that she was shot. Pete makes very sex positive music and is not shy about her sex life. Others like here tend to be silenced and seen as less believable when they speak up about the violence they’ve endured the jezebel trope is often played out in the courts to discredit and belittle Black women and girls. By viewing Black women as less innocent due to their inherently “sexual bodies,” it means they are at fault and culpable of violence against them since they don’t look like the perfect victim. This leads to the dangerous belief that Black women are immune to harm or “tough enough” to endure trauma as part of their nature.

Angry Black Woman/ Sapphire

Historically, the sapphire was seen as a Black woman who uses exaggerated, overly sassy body language: hands on hips, finger wagging to emasculate the men around her. The angry Black woman is its successor. The angry Black woman is always upset, aggressive, loud and rude. The angry Black woman is a dismissive figure in our culture who is not to be taken seriously as it’s in her nature to be angry. This belief dismisses Black women’s concerns and right to express themselves emotionally because any reaction from a Black woman is essentially an overreaction.

The Strong Black Woman/ Superwoman schema:

In the article Strong Black Woman and Identity, the strong Black woman is essentially a reaction to stress from gender and racial discrimination. The superwoman is one who has a large desire to succeed, usually super independent to the point help is not an option, reserved emotions and a strong obligation to help others. These traits can be very useful in environments that have high levels of racial and gender discrimination; these qualities can protect one’s health. However, the superwoman schema can be detrimental to fact someone she cared about shot her.

The stereotype of the strong Black woman in America is a means of survival. It also makes it seem that Black women have a higher pain tolerance than others, are meant to endure the worst that society has to offer and that they’ll be fine without any support. This belief is especially dangerous in healthcare since it leads to less coverage and support for medical conditions and pain management.

Colorism

one’s health too. Dr. Amani M. Allen, associate professor at Berkeley University of California and lead author of African American Women’s Heart and Health Study, states that “this idea of being strong Black women and feeling the need to prepare for racial discrimination on a daily basis and anticipation adds to their overall stress burden.” Allen’s co-author Dr. Yijie Wang, associate professor at Michigan State University also says that the trope “reflects gendered racial socialization African American women receive in life”.

The pressure to be superhuman leads to self-sacrifice that does more harm than good. In Pete’s case, the strong Black woman trope is very prevalent. Before the shooting, she bonded with Lanez because they both lost their mothers around the same time. Pete’s mother died in 2019 and her grandmother shortly after. By lying to the police, she sacrificed her reputation for Lanez’s safety the night of the shooting. Pete initially lied to the police when she stepped on glass. Due to their being a gun at the scene, she was scared for everyone’s lives that the police would shoot, following George Floyd’s murder by the police. She protected Lanez, despite him shooting her, from the police and still endured lots of hate from his fans. She had to remain strong with little to no support system. She broke up with her best friend, was still mourning the loss of her mother and grandmother and dealing with the

Colorism is the preferential treatment of lighter-skinned people in a community. For Black women, this equates to the glorification and fetishization of the “Red bone,” “yellow bone,” exotic girls who are Black but don’t look “too Black.” This is largely because of the way those who are lighter-skinned are closer to passing as white, thus not enduring as much discrimination as their darker-skinned counterparts. This is very evident in the music industry with light-skinned artists like Ice Spice, Latto and Coi Leray receiving more mainstream attention than darker-skinned artists like Normani, Monaleo, who recently spoke up about colorism, and Bree Runway.

Colorism categorizes people as “overly desirable” or “less desirable” based on their skin color. Being raised with these ideals can cause a lot of trauma and self-hatred, leading to people lashing out against each other due to insecurities about their skin color.

Featurism

Featurism is preferential treatment for people who have Eurocentric facial features; it degrades big lips, broad noses, and anything “big” on a Black person’s body. Featurism disproportionately affects women more than men.

Conversely, with the emergence of Blackfishing, a term coined by Canadian journalist Vanna Thompson, white people are able to pick and choose aspects of Blackness they like and make money from it. For example, Black darkskinned people aren’t shown in the media as desirable as a person with an extreme tan. Blackfishing is essentially the cosplay of Blackness by white and non-black women. Think Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Emma Hallberg.

 See BLACK WOMEN, page 5 continued from page 1

“I was intrigued by the fact that the most powerful president in the world, the President of the United States of America, could be brought down by the press.” Ogbondah said.

Ogbondah read the Time article and went to his father about wanting to be a journalist to write the story in his own country. From Nixon’s resignation, Ogbondah’s journalism career sparked. At the time of his discovery, he wanted to investigate corruption and poor leadership in his own community in Nigeria.

As a result, Ogbondah later pursued higher education, and from his education Ogbondah started a journey which has led him to numerous awards nationally and locally, including the opportunity to come to the University of Northern Iowa in 1986.

Ogbondah’s

Impact

When Ogbondah began his career at UNI he was hired and later was involved in the development of curriculum in public relations and journalism. During this time, the journalism minor was housed under the English department, but has been practiced by the Northern Iowan Newspaper since 1896. “I felt journalism belonged more in the broad field of communication. We are a complement to other aspects of communication such as public relations, radio, television and today digital media, so I advocated.”

In 1992, the journalism minor went to the communication and theatre arts department. Over time, the 24-credit-hour journalism minor was added to the Mass Communication Division, which was administered by Ogbondah as he was the coordinator of the journalism minor and its internship program for many years. The major was introduced in 2016 along with its rebranding from electronic media to digital media Ogbondah was one of the three founding faculty along with Christopher Martin, Ph.D. who led the project and Anelia Dimitrova, Ph.D.

Global Impact

With Ogbondah’s global background, he introduced a number of new curriculums which impacted U.S higher education. He taught global mass communication systems, global public relations, global mass communication systems and international journalism. These courses never existed until he taught them.

“I wrote the description and then, of course, what was going to be in the curriculum. I wrote that also because I felt that our students needed to know about the journalism practice elsewhere in the world,” Ogbondah said. “There was no global public relations course anywhere in the United States. Most universities just offered public relations, that when I came here in 1986, the head department at the time… said ‘Chris, teach two classes and choose any other course you can teach like a seminar.’”

From there, Ogbondah introduced global public relations as an experimental basis and wrote an article about it. The article gathered attention from a professor at the University of Ohio, and Ogbondah wrote and contributed in the first chapter in introducing the global perspective in public relations in the first Book of “International public relations education: U.S. issues and perspectives.” Ogbondah sparked a perspective and conversations across the U.S. However, this was not the only time in which Ogbondah took the global stage.

In 1999, Nigeria transitioned from military rule to civil rule. During their transition, Ogbondah went to do a presentation with other global leaders to advocate for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA is a law in the U.S. in which guarantees that the public has the right to request any record from federal agencies in an attempt to keep citizens aware of government practices. On March 15, 2002, Ogbondah went to Nigeria with Political Science Professor Pita Agbese, Ph.D. to help draft a new constitution in Nigeria. This law didn’t exist in Nigeria, and from his recommendation, including the efforts of other global leaders, this law later came into full fruition in 2011.

“I’m happy about it. Not my sole credit. But is the collective credit of scholars like me, teachers like me and civil society groups in Nigeria.” he said

Student Impacts

UNI Alum and Iowa

Starting Line Journalist

Amie Rivers was a student in Ogbondah’s class in 2000.

“To this day, I still remember Dr. Ogbondah hammering into my brain the idea of newsworthiness, or what counted as serious journalism. The definition that most interested me was “odd” — I hadn’t considered (and loved the idea) that serious journalism would entertain the macabre and the outlandish.” Rivers said. “But I didn’t think so at first: My journalism heroes were the stuffy politics writers, the droll chroniclers of dry copy. They were the important writers and they got the good jobs. Watergate was serious, after all! Who actually respected a writer who wrote about a man-biting dog?”

Ogbondah had a huge influence on Rivers and encouraged her to pursue the idea of feature writing during her time, including recognizing who are good sources and what kind of stories to pursue.

“Dr. Ogbondah was a serious journalist in his own right, and yet he was showing us that our writing didn’t always have to be serious — it could be playful, or it could talk about weirdos doing incredibly odd things, and that all of that is the fabric of life and deserves ink in our newspapers, too.” Rivers said.

Strategic public relations major Maddie Graves has had a similar experience to

Rivers.

“When I was in his class, I needed a lot of encouragement to kind of get out of my box and get out of my norm that I was usually in,” She said. Graves mentioned that she was always encouraged to ask questions, and Ogbondah always came to class with fresh ideas.

“Whenever he would talk about his personal life and all of his plans, it really made us feel like we weren’t just students like that, we were people. He always made us feel human and that if you are going through it, that’s okay. That’s something I really appreciated in a faculty member.” Graves said.

Sports public relations major Meg Grove echoed Ogbondah teaching and inclusiveness of everything, but was also inspired by Ogbondah to pursue a minor.

“He was one of my first professors coming into journalism. After taking his class, Fundamentals of Journalism, I decided to minor in digital journalism. I really loved his teaching style and I learned a lot from it. I still use things that I learned from his class to this day.” Grove said Grove and Graves even mentioned that Ogbondah was a fashion icon and was the best styled professor on campus.

Retirement

With Ogbondah’s retirement, his legacy in Iowa, his writing and his teaching has impacted scholars across the country.

“I wasn’t going to (originally) apply for this award. (There are) so many persons in UNI scholars who have done so much at (the university). What is my chances as a Nigerian, as an African, as a Black man. But I remembered that the award selection was going to be done by blind folded reviewers, so I turned in my application.”

It wasn’t until the 2022 spring semester it was announced that Ogbondah earned the award.

“The award means a lot to me and my family. It shows that America is a wonderful opportunity… I want the international community to understand that journalism can be used to foster national and international peace. Journalism can be used to foster international peace and understanding the way we frame stories. The way we report it, the angles will emphasize others can be critical in fostering international peace and understanding among nations… I’d like journalists to understand that they have a tremendous role to play in terms of international peace and security.” he said Ogbondah leaves his legacy in Iowa and is back in his home country in Nigeria.

“I’m happy to be an ambassador for the University of Northern Iowa, and the state of Iowa, as well as the United states of America. As I leave UNI and go to the world. I am going back to Africa to start a Journalism training institute.” Ogbondah said.

El personal de Green Dot también espera tener un gran evento en algún momento durante el semestre, por lo que todos deberían estar atentos a las páginas de redes sociales de Green Dot , para ver lo que tienen planeado, además de mantenerse al día de cuándo tengan más talleres de formación disponibles.

Green Dot es un programa muy importante que muchos estudiantes han solicitado específicamente en el pasado, y la facultad está muy emocionada porque ahora pueden realizar estos talleres de formación. Es importante crear conciencia sobre el programa Green Dot para crear una cultura de seguridad y respeto en el campus. Como dice el eslogan de Green Do t: “Nadie tiene que hacerlo todo, pero todos tienen que hacer algo”.

Si tiene más preguntas sobre el programa Green Dot , puede visitar su sitio web en greendot.uni.edu, que tendrá mucha información y enlaces de registro. También se pueden solicitar talleres privados enviándoles un correo electrónico a greendot@uni.edu.