As we continue
Rationalization Hamster Week, I thought it would be a good idea to, at the same time, examine a bit of what has become known in some circles as the "BWE" blogosphere. While I have a more detailed post discussing the matter lined up for later this week, let me whet your appetite for now with the following brief description:
"BWE" is an acronyom for "Black Women's Empowerment"; the term ostensibly stands for Black Women empowering themselves via a number of methods and means, which includes but is not necessarily limited to things as diet and exercise, expanded education and success in the workplace, and focusing on the building of healthy relationships and family/community life. All of that sounds great, right?
Until you get to stuff like this - which is the backbone of the socalled "BWE" community. The notion of a "DBRBM" - which means "Damaged Beyond Repair Black Man" - is at the heart of the BWEers' entire worldview; just about every post or comment, revolves around the notion that if only Black Men in aggregate simply disappeared, Black Womens' lives would be so much better!
FAITH: Since this backlinked to my blog let's clarify something. I have ZERO to do with conversation and your disdain is showing. I'm certainly not confused about what and who is a baby mama and how it negatively impacts kids. I support marriage and stability.
OBSIDIAN: Yes, you're right - sort of. While it is true that you don't have anything to do with the particular conversation on Baby Mamas, the point remains that the bloggerette who posted such inane comments/thoughts includes YOU
on her blogroll, and considers herself quite the exponent of socalled "BWE" philosophy and "thought"; moreover, since I've been following you and others of your ilk for sometime now, I thought it would be a good way to get the conversation started in earnest;
more below. Please know however,
that I am glad that you patently disagree with Ms. Jamila; I'll be sure to let her know that!
But wait, Obsidian, some of you may ask - exactly WHO is "Faith"?
Faith is a "BWE" blogger who's blog,
"Acts of Faith" is a clearinghouse of anti-Black Man propoganda (I think they all get their "BWE"/"DBRBM" Talking Points Memo at the crack of dawn before they go to their blogs). Here is a taste of Faith's "BWE" stylings
on what she considers to be a "DBRBM".
Recently, I got an email from blogger
Zek J Evets, asking me if I knew of Faith; he was under the impression that she and I had crossed paths before. I responded that I hadn't ever heard of her at the time (this was early last month) but now that he had alerted me to her blog-presence, I would keep an eye out.
It was around that time that I became aware of a tiff between the two of them - Zek and Faith -
and which really sums it all up for anyone wanting to understand the real deal about the socalled "BWE" community. Here's a few highlights from
Zek's post on the matter:
"A blogger named Faith saw fit to attempt [a rebuttal of my post] at a friend's blog. Upon seeing her link in the comments section, I clicked it and began reading. By the first paragraph I was already troubled. (And not just because it's written in 10 different fonts, colors, bolds, italics, and other stylistics, making it look like a death threat from some stalker cut out of magazine clippings. But I digress…) What I read seemed to scream out from every sentence on the page: bitterness, vitriol, anger, rage, hatred, fear, paranoia, and most of all MISANDRY...
To start, Faith remarks on her experience as a single woman, and how she fell for the lies that men she met had told her. She talked about being used for sex and being dumped harshly. It was a sad story, and I feel sorry for her situation, having suffered through the exact same thing myself at the hands of other women. It sucks to be used, and I empathize...
I object, in good faith, to the portrayal of men as monsters like Faith seems to think we are. Yes there are men who do coerce women to their detriment. Yes there are men who use women's emotions or naiveté to manipulate them. Yes, there are bad men out there. But there are bad people in every group out there, and yet they are not the majority of people. Why is it that a minority of douchebag men are held up for scrutiny and made to represent all men? Would we tolerate this kind of stereotyping for women? Should I judge all women by the crack-head prostitutes living in the Tenderloin of San Francisco? Should we judge all Jewish people to be rich and greedy because of the few prominent ones in Hollywood? Should we judge Black people as inherently criminal or stupid because one scientist thinks so? Do you see the rationale being utilized here? I hope so, because it's disgusting...
I object, in good faith, to the portrayal of individual male-to-female interactions as a "war" between the sexes. Sure, groups have power struggles, but for individuals trying to date each other that's not a reality. Men and women interact with varying needs, or desires, but domination or power is not typically what single people are thinking of when they go to the bar, or the club, or on a first date. That Faith views social interaction between two people this way is a testament to her negative experience, not to real life...
I object, in good faith, to her saying that women need to understand the "true nature of men". What "true nature" is she referring to? Our masculine one? Our love of sports or video-games? What exactly is she referring to? Moving on...
Yet when justifying her blunt post, Faith says, "At the end of the day, I call as I see it. Agree or disagree, it needed to be said."
But the truth is it didn't. This wasn't a PSA. This wasn't no damn public service announcement about Safe Sex or The War On Drugs. This was a ranting blog post from a deranged and disturbed woman who projects her own feelings and failures onto others while condemning them for not being as angry and unfulfilled as she is. You cannot empower anyone with fear-mongering, let alone empower women...
Then I remembered that she wrote all of this based off her number of positive experiences — "I know my number: ZERO!", she says. This comment is very telling. It tells me that she's angry, bitter and upset about being used by some guy from way back to this very day...
More importantly, it shows me that she's either involuntarily celibate, or in a bad marriage. Seriously! Only someone who hasn't gotten some good dick could be that bitter about other people having sex on their terms. And on that charge, I feel sorry for her mothball ridden, cobwebbed, dry as the desert coochie! But not that sorry. She is still, after all, an ignorant bigot...
I also began to realize that I made another fundamental mistake. I assumed that because she was of a certain race and gender, ones which have often had to deal with the brunt of bigotry in this world, that she'd understand prejudice and fight for empowering others. Instead, I forgot to remember that nobody is above human failings, that just because we have the potential for good doesn't mean we can't overflow with rage as well."
There's more - a lot, lot more - and I urge everyone reading this to go and read the whole thing,
AND the attendant links
back to Faith's blog for yourself, and to come to your own conclusions.
What the deepest irony in all this here - aside from what will become bleedingly obvious as you read Zek's post - is that he and I didn't get off on the good foot, so to speak. Those of you who remember the O-Files 1.0 may recall Zek and I having words over the whole "Swirl" issue, last year. Well, he and I have had a detente of sorts since then, and I consider him to be a pretty cool guy, now that I've had the chance to chat with him off to the side a bit. I look forward to cultivating a deeper friendship with him, in fact. Here at The O-Files, we aims to make peace with the world.
As for Ms. Faith and those of her ilk, I'll simply say this: if you want to know what is really eating them, all you need do is take a look -
here is Faith's Facebook page.
On a scale of 0-10 - 0=Swamp Thing troglodyte, and 10=Metaphysical Goddess from Alpha Centuri, where do you rank Ms. Faith?
Now adjourn your asses...
The Obsidian
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