Rekia Boyd and Trayvon Martin
I am an unapologetic pro-Black Woman! Being a pro-Black Woman doesn’t mean I am anti-man. It means that if you were to ask me who’s side I am on, I would say mine!
Black men already have back up. Thank civil rights and social justice groups like the NAACP and the Urban League for winning your historic battles. Basically, the entire patriarchal Black social, political and economic infrastructure, and liberal whites work to hard expose the mistreatment of Black males and routinely ignore Black women.
When will it change?
Black women are silent victims.The honest truth is that the deaths of Black women do not matter. Don’t believe me? Compare the reactions to Travon Martin and Rekia Boyd. There was justified outrage over Trayvon Martin. This is always the case when Black males killed or assaulted by non Blacks.
However, if you are wondering who Rekia Boyd was, your question pretty much supports my argument.
March 22, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — A woman shot by an off-duty Chicago police officer on Wednesday morning died Thursday. Family members say she was an innocent bystander and are calling for an investigation into her death.
“How could this be justified? They took my sister away from me,” said Martinez Sutton, the brother of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd.
The suburban man is grieving the loss of his sister, who died Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital after being shot in the head by an off-duty Chicago police officer.
Boyd and a man were both shot early Wednesday morning by an off-duty detective on the city’s West Side.
Family and friends who were at Boyd’s side when she passed away Thursday are calling for a federal investigation into her death.
Boyd’s family insists she was an innocent bystander.
“This young beautiful girl dead in the streets. Why?” said Sutton.
Boyd’s family brought two photos of her Thursday to the hospital. In the first, she is a smiling, happy 22-year-old woman. The second photo was snapped shortly before she died. - WLS
Rekia Boyd was shot and killed by a police officer in Chicago for no reason! When Rekia Boyd was killed, there were no million hoodie marches, no t-shirts, no twitter hashtags, no foundations in her name, and no outrage. There was only a deafening silence with the exception of her family and a few bloggers. So, I am an advocate for my sister, Rekia and Black women because others are unwilling to do so for us.
Try searching Travyon Martin and then search Rekia Boyd. Both were equally tragic but look at who has received the most attention. It’s time for Black women to value us.
Bing search results as of 10/30/2012
Trayvon Martin: 6,650,000
Rekia Boyd: 11,900
Any questions????
While all violent deaths are tragic, I think the larger problem is what is happening in the black community in general:
“The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics report offers a snapshot of racial disparities among violent crime victims. Black people represented an estimated 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2005, the latest data available, but were the victims of 49 percent of all murders and 15 percent of rapes, assaults and other nonfatal violent crimes nationwide.
Most of the black murder victims — 93 percent — were killed by other black people, the study found. About 85 percent of white victims were slain by other white people.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-3153497.html
So, while only 13% of the population, the black community has almost half the murders, and 93% of those are blacks murdering other blacks. The black community is wiping itself out. The breakdown of black families is having dire consequences for the community as a whole.
In the African American community, 72 percent of Black children are raised in a single parent household.
http://newsone.com/1195075/children-single-parents-u-s-american/
There is no doubt that a child raised in a two parent home has advantages in life that are just not available to the average child raised in a single-parent home.
I fear the future is bleak if this doesn’t change.
I would consider your post a derailment, mainly because it does have anything to do with disparity of support between the black sexes. What bothered you was the fact that these 2 victims were killed by non-blacks and Zimmerman is still considered white despite the pseudo “one drop rule” whites use to distance themselves from latinos (when its convenient). Neither of the victims’ familial status saved their lives.
Quite telling that rather than address my comment, you decide to mis-characterize how I feel in a perfect example of a strawman argument.
My point stands. This post, while interesting, avoids the largest problem related to murders in the black community, as I pointed out above.
The black community is destroying itself. There is no way that a community that is quickly growing past 70% single-parent household will survive.
There is no cavalry coming. If they don’t address their community problems, there won’t be a community to save.
You can try to make it about anything else as it sinks, but it is sinking.
The problem is that the white community HAS already been destroying itself,by breeding people who think in a racist and ignorant way like YOU do. If you weren’t so infected by the mental illness of racism you would MAYBE open your mind up and realize why things are the way they are? You can’t see past your own hate though, and I feel totally sorry for you because of that. Your brain is just soaked in hate and you will eventually destroy yourself.
When you pass judgement onto others and try to put others down, you’re just making yourself look like a desperate hateful clown who can’t stand black people. People see through your type and we are not impressed nor do we care or believe what you say. People like you just continue to waste your time. No one cares what some random white guy thinks, a white guy who obviously doesn’t like black people, yet you seem obsessed with us?
What I want to know is why are you even on here? You have no vested interest in even making a comment or appearance on these types of sites, so all you’re doing is stalking the page so that you can start trouble. I think when people like you get on here, we ALL need to just ignore you and pretend you’re not there. Just keep talking to yourself buddy
You disguise your hate pretty well but most people see through weak, lonely people like YOU.
Maybe one day you will do your family a favor and shoot yourself in the head? I’m sure you have some meth to smoke or a bunch of alcohol to drink? See this is why people like you can’t get a date or a woman to love you LOSER> I k now a big fat meth pig white lady that would JUST adore you!
What do you think will happen if black women just start supporting themselves and other black women? Do you think their will be backlash from black men?
I couldn’t possibly think so. Every arch for black men the women have been there supporting front row and we still get treated badly.
There will be backlash. There already is. I see it on FB posts all the time. So-called “conscious brothers” are so threatened that some even come right out and express their desire to keep the black woman beneath their collective heel, or in the kitchen. It is real out there. I do agree that women should look out for themselves first, but it’s a task. We’ve been trained to be the handmaidens of the world, so there’s a lot of un-training to to do.
I think this post brings up an important topic, which I hope to explore more in my own work. Black females have been intensely victimized under the system of Racism (White Supremacy) and it seems that we are not speaking up about it in deference to the egregious assault of black males by suspected Racist enforcement officials. Black females are indeed silent victims and I hope that soon changes. I also think helps fuel the anti-black sentiments coming from all sources including other black females and particularly black males in the media.
I also would add a counter-perspective to Mr. McCarger’s comment. The murder rate that Mr. McCarger cites cannot fully be understand or even honestly discussed outside the context of (Racism) White Supremacy. In fact, his argument reminds me of NYT opinion piece, entitled “Playing the Violence Card”, where the author goes into how people who classify themselves as “white” bring up the violence within residential areas primarily populated by black people to derail discussions on Racism and unjust force used by enforcement officials rather than to examine the social causes that produce that violence.
Reference:
Playing the Violence Card
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/playing-the-violence-card.html?_r=2&
This is not just a matter of white supremacy. The under value of Black women is reinforced and openly promoted within the patriarchal Black population to the point where if you do not comply you are ostracized.
YES!!!
Also, the death of Aiyanna Jones, black female, also had minimal response in comparison to the other cases you cited. In this incident, we have enforcement officials who raided the residence of an 7 year old who was subsequently murdered in the process (all while filming the still widely popular and Racist television show called “The First 48”
Should Detroit Police Have Had Cameras Rolling When Girl was Shot?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/WorldNews/detroit-police-covered-aiyanna-jones-died-raid-attorney/story?id=10677976
It’s sexism plain and simple. Blacks don’t value black women, but only as mules, sex objects and extensions for the black men’s concerns. If I raise the issue of the disparity, I’ve been labelled downing black men, frustrated or angry black woman. My negative experience is not the result of bad choices in men, but I should have choosen myself. It becomes personal, but the personal is political. The black woman is invisible and patriarchy aims to keep it that way.
I agree
Our race must come together again. We must! Our future depends on it.. I don’t understand when a white man kills a black woman/man or child, the black community stand up against it and fight.. As soon as a black man kills one of our race we brush it under the rug. We can not let any race, even our own kill us off. We can not allow blacks to continue to kill our children in our comunities. We can not allow whites to kill our men and women.. I hear too often that blacks will stand up to whites and see to it that he/she receive punishment for their crimes against blacks.. But do very little in return when a black man commit the same crime towards our children.
It is a MUST that we stop pointing our fingers, at one race, when our OWN people are looting us.. We have to stand against the oppressor even if he is the same skin color as your own. Worng is wrong.. My heart goes out to both Rekia and Trayvon.. Gone too soon!
@Richard
You haven’t addressed the topic. You feel your commentary should take priority despite the author being specific about the topic for the discussion. It isn’t a strawman just because whites or non-blacks killing blacks makes you uncomfortable, at least enough to derail the discussion even though, again, the author of this blog was specific about the issue she wanted to discuss. You might feel that being white and male allows you take approach black women as children who need to be reminded of their priorities as well. Address the topic and we’ll see about your derailing commentary.
You seem to have a need to presume to know my thoughts without hearing them from me. That is a classic strawman argument.
I’ve given you no reason to believe that I have any additional discomfort for a killing done by a white or non-black, than for any other killing for which I have responsibility. You’ve made that presumption entirely on your own in order to make your case.
I’m stating my opinion of the larger harm, while not discounting the fact the OP has a problem, about which she would like a resolution.
I have no resolution for her problem, but suggest that with the black community destroying itself, it may be fruitless to complain about treatment by men while the community is wiping itself out.
“I’m stating my opinion of the larger harm” and “it may be fruitless to complain about treatment by men while the community is wiping itself out.”
I’ll quote myself: “You feel your commentary should take priority despite the author being specific about the topic for the discussion.”
It doesn’t look like I was too off the mark does it?
Feel free trying to make someone else the problem as the situation becomes more dire. It won’t change the facts.
The facts are, as white people are made the enemy, blacks are killing one another in unprecedented and unsustainable numbers.
How awkward?
White Americans are just as likely to be killed by other whites. According to Justice Department statistics (pdf), 84 percent of white people killed every year are killed by other whites.
Shut up random white guy. Go get a big fat red neck white hog with lice and if you buy her some meth and a cowboy hat she might just suck your pee pee.Yippie.
Another case is recently with the football player who killed the mother of his child, no one cared about her, people actually blamed her and “accused” her of doing something, as they normally do because we can’t help ourselves it’s always something the female did when it comes to black people, which in their minds gave him a right to be mad and shoot her though it’s proven he was messing around with another woman. All they cared about was a black male, who was a professional athlete, his career and image taken away, no one cared about the victim who was a victim of abuse, misogyny and hatred. He didn’t deserve the coddling she did, but no one cared, I mean why should they, she’s black and female. I’ve addressed many times how the black community immediately come together when a black man is faced with injustice. It doesn’t even have to be about death, it can be about a sentence in court or something a white male said verbally on the streets and we march to make sure we crucify that white male until he realizes black men are not to be harmed or disrespected. We even crucify black women for defending ourselves against black men because we immediately assume it’s black male hatred, that how protected black men are. Yes blame black patriarchy, sexism and misogyny it’s like a disease in black community. Black women are not valued, I’ve compared similar cases on many forums only to have black people, speficially misogynistic black men and black male female apologists “They can’t compare” we can empathize with every other struggle accept the black woman. Recently there was article about a black woman being discriminated against because of her natural hair and wasn’t hired, no one knows about it, I’m not surprised. Black women aren’t valued unless we’re providing our wombs for black male birth, our our mouths for black defending.
Not to skirt the issue, but there’s a HUGE point missing from the post: Justice is all about money - the more you have, the more justice you receive. This does become a racial issue since poverty is MUCH MORE prevalent in the black community and in single, black female households. That’s all I have to say.
I believe we, as BW, need to focus on supporting BW without the fear or need of approval from BM. For too long we have supported those who have, and continue to defile us.
Also, I do agree that when negative things happen to BM they gain more support as oppose to negative occurrences happening to BW.
I say this with love, Sistas, it’s simple. Support yourself, BW, and do not support those that disrespect you.
@Richard
I agree with you and have had this opinion for years. I just believe some are offended because you have a perspective on the sensitive subject as a non-black person.