On Mark Anthony Neal’s Blog he posted a video on the Broken Social Contract. This video brings into question an unspoken contract between black men and women, which requiring a code of silence, requesting black women to protect black men from getting “caught in the system” for sexual inappropriateness.
Many women on the campus of Spelman felt they were being sexually harassed and assaulted by the men at Morehouse, the very same men who were supposed to be viewed as their brothers, looking out for them with the best intentions. The women on the campus of Spelman didn’t so much care about the code of silence, and their assumed duty to their black brothers, but more or less rights and wrongs. They were not willing to jeopardize their own safety for the security of a male who didn’t care about theirs.
Deborah Gray White’s Too Heavy a Load brings to the table the observation that the social contract between black men and women is nothing new. During the women’s auxiliary movement women were expected to stand by their husband’s side. The organizations they formed were expected to hand over profits, and be governed by the men organizations. The women simply did not feel this to be appropriate and though they wanted to stand by their men, they also had to make the decision to stand on their own. These circumstances forced them to decide between being black or being a woman on many different occasions. “The entire issue of sexual exploitation, then, spoke to the issue of class. As noted earlier, clubwomen correctly believed that the sexual exploitation of black women originated during the slavery era, when white men used black women to increase the slave population. When whites forbade legal slave marriages, separated families, and took sexual advantage of slaves, they further debased them” (69). The women at Spelman were tired of debasement and wanted to assert themselves as people first, then black women. The black men at Morehouse and from the history books couldn’t as readily understand woman’s need to set themselves up as women, because the battle appeared to be one between “the man” and the black man.
Being a black man I can see very much importance in the social contract, however, I do see the point from the women’s side and feel black men everywhere could do a little better at making sure we make it easier to uphold for our women. We could make it easier by treating them as women, as people, as our sisters, and our equals. Black men have to gain an understanding of our sisters desire for an identity; one that does not automatically demean and debase them as sexual objects to be at our disposal.
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Over on Teresa Wiltz blog she ask the question “Whats Up With Waxy Michelle?” Wiltz takes note that Michelle and Barack Obama have been immortalized in the wax museum. Her problem with their immortalization is the wax statue does not accurately portray Michelle. The museum in fact chose to lighten Michelle up a few shades, perhaps perpetuating detrimental stereotypes that have confused and bruised the ego’s of black youth for generations. Most of us have seen the mini documentary of by Kiri Davis “A Girl Like Me,” , which showed the danger in promoting negative connotations with dark shades and not being proud of who you are.
Wiltz criticizes the decision to brighten Michelle Obama’s hue, saying we should accept her as she is. “Last week’s whirlwind European tour proved that the world thinks Michelle is quite fabulous, thank you, in all of her natural brown glory,” and so should all of us here in America. Little girls have enough to worry about while trying to stay as thin as the models on the magazine covers, by trying to get them to believe there is not only a weight requirement to beauty but also a complexion requirement we are doing them a disservice.
Michelle is beautiful in all of her chocolaty goodness, and if we embrace her as she is, it may go a long way to balancing out some of the past harm that has been done to our young sisters to portray her in her natural shade.
