Remember Shirley by San Diego Monitor News

October 15th 2021

SDMNEWS The Life-Style & Business Journal

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In her 1993 poem “Won’t You Come Celebrate With Me”, Black feminist poet Lucille Clifton wrote: won’t you celebrate with me what I have shaped into a kind of life? I had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did I see to be except myself? I made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.

April National Poetry Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time of reckoning for and celebration of survivors, living and ancestral, crossing this bridge between starshine and clay, in COVID-19’s shadow.

Years ago, during casual conversation, Wren (named changed), a now deceased older relative of mine, and contemporary of Clifton’s, disclosed that she had been sexually abused. Born during the early years of the Great Depression in the Deep South, she was from a generation of women accustomed to being told that the violence they experienced in their homes and families was the natural cost of being Black, female, and poor. She was that strong prototypical Black woman; heavily armored, guarding a tender heart, stealthy smile, monster work ethic, and a take no prisoners wit that dazzled and infuriated. Having no model, she couldn’t understand why “younger folks” made such a “fuss” about rape and sexual assault. Shaping her life, she couldn’t understand why women of a more “liberated” generation didn’t just buck up and move on because “I was raped practically every day of my life”. Part of the African American exodus of Great Migration pioneers, she was fiercely proud that she’d moved to California on her own, worked any odd job she could find

to support her family alone, and never had to depend on a man for support. Her stiff upper lip trauma has painful resonance as Covid-19 lays bare the disparities that survivors face in Black communities at the epicenter of the U.S.’ health care gulag. Nationwide, African American women continue to have some of the highest rates of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and domestic abuse in the U.S. By the time they turn eighteen, it is estimated that forty to sixty percent of African American girls have experienced sexual abuse. According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, Black women are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered by men than white women. Black women are also more likely to die at the hands of a current or former intimate partner than any other group in the country. In the time that it takes to read this piece, a Black girl will have been sexually assaulted and a Black woman murdered by a husband, lover, or ex-partner. NEXT PAGE

In the time that it takes to read this piece, a Black child will be left motherless as the result of homicide by her one and only true love. In the time that it takes to read Clifton’s poem, a Black child will be molested by a “trusted” family member who has groomed them with promises, treats, and whispers to ‘stay silent’. In the time that it takes to cross the bridge between starshine and clay, a Black child will be trafficked over and over again because the rape of a minor is a more valuable capitalist street commodity than drugs. These brutal hidden-in-plain-sight realities have been ripped open as a result of decades of anti-violence activism. Yet, as a survivor and mentor to Black girls, I am reminded every damn day that the scope and atrocity of sexual violence has not changed significantly over the course of my lifetime. As survivors many of us are reminded that even though we fight to end child sexual abuse, and even though we “celebrate everyday something that has tried to kill us and failed”, we continue to grieve our childhoods. Reflecting on early sessions of the National Black Women’s Health Project (NBWHP) in the eighties, founder Byllye Avery recalled that “The number one issue for most of our sisters is violence—battering, sexual abuse. Whether they are twelve or four.” In their 2003 book, Gender Talk, Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Johnetta Cole describe NBWHP’s powerful and near heretical platform for Black women’s selfdetermination. “During the early years of the project, Black women broke the conspiracy of silence and dared to speak about the race secrets they’d been programmed to keep.” Then and now, these race secrets entailed unquestioned allegiance to Black patriarchy, the Black church, and Black heteronormativity. Then and now, to paraphrase Sheftall, Black folks are often more galvanized by police violence against Black men than the hidden-inplain-sight violence that occurs every minute of every hour against Black women, girls, and children in our own homes, churches, and families. Covid-19 has amplified this regime of violent silence and complicity. Noting the intersection of sexual violence and COVID-related disparities, Black feminist activist, filmmaker, and author Aishah Shahidah Simmons has called institutionalized sexual abuse and sexual violence a “pandemic within a pandemic”. Rape culture as a constant, unrelenting fact is one of the many “silent” ways normalized violence and misogynoir shape the lives of Black women and Black people on a day-to-day basis regardless of viral

outbreaks. Yet, the coronavirus’ devastating economic and social toll on communities of color has been insidiously reflected in skyrocketing sexual, intimate partner, and domestic violence rates. Stress and burnout related to gender-specific duties are common themes among my students. Our imperative during the pandemic has been creating safe spaces for them to write, talk, reflect, and self-care. While feelings of depression, fear, and anxiety are pervasive symptoms of COVID’s staggering mental health impact, Black girls have always struggled with the cultural demand that they repress their emotions and “keep it moving”. This is the story that connects my grandmother’s generation to Generation Z youth coming of age in a #MeToo and “Surviving R Kelly” era still defined by the racist/sexist privileging of white female victimhood and Black male redemption.

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Remember Shirley

Do you remember the infamous Beer Summit, the one that Henry Louis Gates got when his feelings were hurt when reminded he was a black man in White America? The entire incident was deemed a “Teachable Moment” by then and former president Barack Obama. He invited the VP Joseph Biden, Gates, and officer Crowley to a “Beer Summit” to talk about race relations and to clear the air. No real harm was done but of course, except an irritating “Teachable Moment” and Gates bruised ego.

So, our Black male president appeased his Harvard homie (Gates) by fostering a real conversation, goodwill, and a cherry on top aka “Beer Summit. This of course was a statement of Obama’s loyalty to his race AND gender. WHEN RACE TRUMPS GENDER and for the sake of the SEX scandal and drama of Black San Diego, the question I have for my Black sistahs: DO YOU REMEMBER SHIRLEY? Shirley Sherrod is a Black woman that ONCE AGAIN had her gender on the chopping block, in trade for her RACE; let me explain. So Black people, you already know how it works for white women who stand up for WHAT is RIGHT when a WRONG points to a “White” man or a “Black” man. Does the question then become which side are you going to be pushed toward when it’s your turn? Yep…You’ll choose Your RACE! For those who don’t remember Shirley, she was minding her own business, doing her job, when Mr. white guy Andrew James Breitbart from the (tea party) viewed the NAACP as a problem to their agenda, so he created a false edited version of Shirley’s lecture at an event; speaking to those she was assigned to help. Here’s the good part, Benjamin Jealous, gets the tape, views it, and along with the WHITE HOUSE; including Barack Obama and other News outlets, defamed Shirley while all talking heads called for her resignation. Let me add that the speech was at an NAACP event, so her statements could have easily been confirmed. SHE WAS FORCED OUT, HUMILIATED, and Ultimately, she was FIRED, for being a RACIST! If you want to revisit the story for your own awareness, please do so, however, let’s move on to the point.

Come to find out, she was innocent. Mr. White guy had lied and edited the film to point the finger as if Shirley Sherrod was a sick mad Black woman out to get white people thus was stamped with the scarlet letters B.I.G.O.T in RED on a PINK slip! (You’re Fired) Continued on pg. 12

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What does it mean “To Kill a Mockingbird?” “The Mockingbird only sings, they sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill mockingbirds.” A direct quote from the book titled beforementioned, I think this concept correlates with the many aspects of “When Race Trumps Gender.” The mockingbird is symbolic of innocence. Shirley WAS INNOCENT! The WHITE HOUSE, FOXNEWS.COM, CNN, CBS, and the National NAACP had to Apologize. The NAACP gave a lame excuse of being tricked by Mr. white guy, Jealous apologized by saying “Hey, let’s meet the next time I’m in Georgia. Barack Obama did call her, but nothing more than a soft sad “I’m sorry.” Though the WHITE HOUSE offered Sherrod another job, she declined, so… WHERE’S the BEER SUMMIT? Wasn’t this a Teachable Moment? Wasn’t her ego bruised? Wasn’t her position in the Federal Government more prestigious and vital than some Harvard Homie Professor? Officer Crowley who arrested Gates was doing his job as a cop, but Breitbart (Mr. white guy) was intentionally evil and defamed Shirley which eventually ended Sherrod’s career. So, to my sistahs, YES, THIS TOO WAS A TEACHABLE MOMENT but yet, it wasn’t. Shirley did not have the luxury of the “Bro’s before Hoes” membership, nor as the

President said (in the above video) at that time, he did not have a personal relationship with Ms. Sherrod, so he wasn’t biased. Black Male America, shows Black women time and time again that “Benjamins” in a Black woman’s Purse holds no value, and is not compatible nor comparable to the value of a Black man’s Wallet. His job, his achievements, his tenure, his successes, his genius, his potentiality, his feelings will warrant a “Beer Summit” at the WHITE HOUSE, thus the “Benjamins” in his wallet; the value of his job is more important than that of a Black woman’s value. Clearly, Bill Cosby, R Kelly, and even Mike Tyson, while organizations like Paving Great Futures, and the Urban League have had and still may have problems with the opposite sex. The above story is for context; so, the question, becomes, if boys are going to be boys, I ask when are Black women going to be “Big Mama’s”? When are they going to step up and put these men in their place; because it’s clear they have defined a Black woman’s place? Back to our community; If black women in this town refuse to clean their own dirty laundry like Paving Great Futures and other organizations, then the status quote will drive us off the cliff. Bully sub-cultures and attitudes that violate our women and children; they’ll continue to suffer. By no means Black San Diego just because there’s such a thing as a silent killer doesn’t mean the dead go silently and or the killer doesn’t make noise. If Black women do not take this opportunity to starch a stiffer path of consequences, well, as Benjamin Franklin said (we paraphrase) Black women will get the community they deserve. In 2020, civil rights activist and founder of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, Rev. Shane Harris wanted to apologize to Black women and asked SDMNEWS publisher Cheryl Morrow would she join him in doing so. The publisher asked Harris why he wanted to apologize, she said he sincerely stated, “If I say I love Black women, I need to show it, not just in my hour of glory, but in my hour of shame.” Black San Diego, imagine, what Black men and women would be saying if Mr. Harris was accused of sexual harassment. Morrow remembers the phone calls she received when Harris was in disagreement with the city’s Black female activist community. She went on to say “All of them (black female activist) called me to let me know they were going after him and was going to confront Harris. They were going to call the National Headquarters of the National Action Network (his employer at the time) some of them even showed up at the Black Contractors Association to call him out.” CONTINUED on PG. 14

Morrow goes on to say, Black Women’s Lives not only Don’t Matter in the hierarchy of Black America, but Black men’s approach for Due Process and Due Diligence for his sisters are lame at best. This “So What” attitude disavows Black women from the notion of having any “Sweet Lilly White Innocence” like that of her white female counterpart. Her virtue has never gotten Black men off the couch, out of the mancave, off his hustle and grind into the mean streets in protest for her virtue. IT’S JUST THAT SIMPLE… Until it’s YOUR daughter’s life, then it MATTERS! Within White America, there are two Black Americas, one for Black men and one for Black women. A Black man’s America is one that supports the kind and gentle soft place to land when he missteps. Then within the preacher cave, an enlistment of troops are deployed to “pick him up” they collude to dust him off which renders a vicious blow to Black women’s collective feminine ego. The other Black America is that for Black women. One that fantasizes, and romanticizes a “Remember when we were in Africa” theme that lulls Black women to sleep when read as a sort of bedtime story at night and perpetuated in the morning glory as a proclamation on Sunday with the most manipulative homiletics. The feminist movement within a Black man’s America is met with visceral and biblical rejection. Black men are as uncomfortable with Feminism just as much or even more than white males, but there’s just one problem though, Black men DO possess the capacity to wake up, but they won’t. Anti-feminism is not compatible with the real world of Black men. The very system that allows himself to be shielded within his convenient dreamscape of a white life imitation eventually will show itself to be counterfeit. Anti-feminism only kicks the can of his soul and real spirituality down the road, and he knows it. Black men who get accused of sexual perverted shenanigans, get excused under a Gospel Sanctimony, though they will have a tendency for high recidivism. Morrow goes on to say, “As long as we believe the Jezebel can’t transform herself into a wife but the PIMP can be reformed into a community leader, well, I guess we’ll always live in a Black man’s Black America which is just the minstrel false lame duck version of White America in black face.

Black Feminism is not Penis Envy ladies and gentlemen! Feminism serves as a balanced cultural marker, a divine principle that merges our lives with our anthropological, ancestral, and cosmic nature. Morrow has a particular viewpoint on feminism, she states “It will be interesting if we heard pastor chicken wing announce to the congregation “Turn to your neighbor and show them your Navel, your umbilical cord” and then go into 45-minutes of rubbish called a sermon about Antifeminism, she laughs.” But the point Ms. Morrow goes on to make is that the two Black America’s don’t and will never be symbiotic without a feministic baptism. The theme “To Kill A Mocking Bird” is at play in Black San Diego. “A healthy community does not tolerate wartime zone-like environments for women and children, I don’t care who you are or who you’re related to, we have got to have a standard and boundaries we won’t cross, we don’t kill the messenger, the whistleblower, we censure its subjects, says Morrow.” Now for those who want to play Devil’s Advocate, You may, but think about this, if Mr. Cosby could create a Mr. Huxtable then he knew better. We know what Mr. Huxtable would have done to a man who violated Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy, and we also know what Clare would have demanded Cliff Huxtable do. R. Kelly is a student of music and if he wrote “I believe I can fly, then he knows of Nat King Cole’s version “Straighten up and Fly Right.” So, if you have not read “To Kill A Mockingbird” or have not seen the movie, to bring you closer to the case and point: whether it’s the innocence of human essence or being innocent of a crime one has not committed, people don’t ask to be violated and if they allow themselves to be it was their warp self-permission, and that’s another imbalance and subject altogether. So, for the sake of healing, and since everyone is a scientologist; believing quote on quote “the science” these days, my sisters need to stand up and call for a vaccine for this virus, the campaign should read “OUR GIRLS AND BOYS ARE #UNF#$%WITHABLE”! And we close with our favorite quote from our publisher: “Living Unapologetically Black y’all, don’t mean you don’t apologize to Black people.”

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During COVID-19 Pandemic, People of Color just don’t trust White America Scientists are held in high esteem by most Americans, with public confidence in scientists outpacing that for other prominent groups, but Black adults are significantly less likely than White adults to share that view. While views of scientists generally tilt positive, there’s a 14point gap between the shares of White and Black adults who say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists (41% vs. 27%). And while most adults in both groups have at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists, Black adults are about twice as likely as White adults to say they have not too much or no confidence in scientists to act in the public interest (21% vs. 11%). U.S. Hispanics rate scientists about the same as White adults do, expressing more confidence in them than Black adults do. White Americans have been more likely than Black Americans to express a great deal of trust in scientists in each Center survey since 2016. This pattern also occurs in data from

the General Social Survey from earlier years. The differences persist when taking into account other factors such as political party and education. There are attitudinal differences between White and Black Americans on a range of issues related to science, including intent to get a COVID-19 vaccine. A recent Pew Research Center analysis found that 74% of White adults (and an identical share of Hispanics) said they would definitely or probably get a coronavirus vaccine, compared with 54% of Black adults who said this. While Black Americans overwhelmingly identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, and Democrats, as a group, tend to have more positive views of scientists than Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican party, the same divide by race holds true for Black and White Democrats. In the 2020 Pew Research Center survey, White Democrats are roughly twice as likely as Black Democrats to say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the best interests of the public (62% vs. 29%).

They are nearly three times more likely than White Americans to expect the brands they use to align with their values and support social causes.

The state of the Black consumer There’s no denying that Black consumption has been constrained, and while it’s growing quickly that growth is starting from a lower base. The steadily rising costs of housing, healthcare, and higher education—needs that are foundational to the quality of life and the possibility of future mobility—are eating up a larger share of household budgets for all poor and middle-class American families, particularly for Black households: the share of expenditures Black households direct to these three categories rose from 38 percent in 1984 to 45 percent in 2019. Our analysis of publicly available but previously uncompiled microdata from the Census Bureau’s Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that at similar income levels, Black households spend a smaller share of their income than White households, although more goes toward the basics. This has not, however, translated into more liquid savings. More money in Black households goes to giving financial support to extended family, servicing higher student debt burdens, and paying higher interest rates on various consumer loans. McKinsey recently surveyed 25,000 Americans to get their views on economic opportunity and the obstacles they face to achieving it. Black respondents were most likely to say that their level of debt had increased over the past year, and they were 50 percent more likely than White respondents to say that they had student or medical debt. Beneath these sobering realities, however, is a market with substantial buying power and influence—and plenty of upside for the future. In 2019, consumer expenditures by Black households totaled approximately $835 billion. Combined spending by all Black households has increased 5 percent annually over the past two decades. It has outpaced the growth rate of combined spending by White households (3 percent), driven mostly by faster population growth.1 Combined spending by all Black households has increased 5 percent annually over the past two decades. It has outpaced the growth rate of combined spending by White households (3 percent). Black consumers are younger, more plugged into smartphones, and more brand-aware than other groups. The median age of Black Americans is 34, a decade younger than the median for White Americans. Black consumers are highly digital: they are more likely to own

a smartphone, and they use their phones 12 percent more than White Americans. They are nearly three times more likely than White Americans to expect the brands they use to align with their values and support social causes. How Black communities are underserved Years of underinvestment by the private sector has left some Black communities with a dearth of retail options and key services. For Black households, this can translate into persistent inconveniences, such as tacking additional travel time onto errands. It can also have more serious implications: “food deserts” that contribute to poor nutrition, a lack of affordable rental housing, fewer healthcare providers, and gaps in broadband coverage. Food. Most Americans take for granted the convenience of a neighborhood super-market with many well-stocked aisles and a bounty of choices. But buying healthy, affordable food is a harder task for the residents of many majority-Black communities. One out of every five Black households is situated in a food desert, with few grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers markets. Unspoken “supermarket redlining” in many Black communities means that food is more expensive, choice is limited, and healthy organic products are harder to come by.3 This can reinforce poor nutrition, especially when convenience stores, whose offerings may not be considered healthoriented, are more often located in Black neighborhoods Housing. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development defines households as “cost-burdened” when they spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing—a tipping point that begins to squeeze their ability to spend on other categories. In 2019, 43 percent of Black households were costburdened, compared with just 25 percent of White households. This is especially acute among low-income Black renters—53.7 percent were cost-burdened in 2019, and that’s before the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately hit Black incomes. Furthermore, a legacy of discrimination in housing markets results in limited opportunities for families of color to live in areas with higher-quality public schools. Much of the nation’s rental-apartment stock is geographically concentrated in ways that reinforce pockets of poverty and patterns of segregation.

White Americans have been more likely than Black Americans to express a great deal of trust in scientists in each Center survey since 2016. This pattern also occurs in data from the General Social Survey from earlier years. The differences persist when taking into account other factors such as political party and education. There are attitudinal differences between White and Black Americans on a range of issues related to science, including intent to get a COVID-19 vaccine. A recent Pew Research Center analysis found that 74% of White adults (and an identical share of Hispanics) said they would definitely or probably get a coronavirus vaccine, compared with 54% of Black adults who said this.

While Black Americans overwhelmingly identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, and Democrats, as a group, tend to have more positive views of scientists than Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican party, the same divide by race holds true for Black and White Democrats. In the 2020 Pew Research Center survey, White Democrats are roughly twice as likely as Black Democrats to say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the best interests of the public (62% vs. 29%). About a quarter (26%) of White Republicans have a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the public interest, but there are not enough Black Republicans in the survey sample for separate analysis. There are also differences between White and Black adults on a similar question in the most recent GSS. In 2018, that survey found that 47% of White adults had a great deal of confidence in leaders of the scientific community, compared with 30% of Black adults (a 17 percentage point

difference). Overall, 55% of Black adults said they had “only some confidence” in scientific leaders, and 12% said they had hardly any confidence in scientific leaders. White adults were less likely to express these views: 46% had only some confidence in scientists and 5% had hardly any. The views of Hispanics fell between those of White and Black Americans. The gap between Black and White adults has been consistent in GSS surveys over time. Penn State Professor Eric Plutzer found Black adults to have lower confidence in scientific leaders than White adults in a combined analysis of data from 2006 to 2010, even after controlling for education, science knowledge and other factors. The gap between Black and White adults in confidence in scientists is larger than the gaps seen in ratings of most other groups. In the Center survey, the confidence gap is larger for scientists (14 points) than for any other group or institution rated, including the military, religious leaders and business leaders. Similarly, differences in confidence between Black and White Americans are largest for scientific leaders and the U.S. Supreme Court (17 points each) in the 2018 GSS survey. By contrast, about eight-in-ten White Americans (78%) considered the effect of science on society to be mostly positive.

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NOTES ON GRIEF Read FOR THE month Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

She writes of her father and his life and the void he leaves, only to find words wanting. With death, she explains, “you learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language.” All the expressions of sympathy that come from her friends, well-intentioned interruptions of her pain, are inadequate, counterproductive, or they simply annoy. He is resting grates on Adichie in particular. “He could very well be resting in his room in our house in Abba,” the author complains. He is in a better place is not just cliched but presumptuous. “How would you know?” she demands. And when people emphasize that her father lived a long life (he died at 88), she takes little consolation. “Age is irrelevant in grief; at issue is not how old he was but how loved.”

AFROFUTURE IS AGELESS

In 2020, the Corona Virus and the George Floyd Murder took center stage. Though Black History turned Fifty, We are officially renaming it Afrofuture Month

Happy 51st Birthday Black History Month February 28th, 1970 - 2022

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