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MALE v.
FEMALE
IS THERE A CONSPIRACY?
By Carolyn Mattocks
In the beginning God created man to rule over
the dominion of the earth. Then he decided that man needed a
helpmate and he created woman. It was in this creation that both
man and woman were to work together with each other in order to
rule over the dominion of the earth.
However:
What has happened to this original state of
the man and woman? It seems that there is a power struggle
between the two genders. Women are now saying that they do not
need a man to take care of them. This type of attitude has led a
lot of our men to turn to Caucasian women. This has also led a
lot of black women to develop bitter attitudes about black men.
Employment status divides black males and females. Some men do
not like women to be in authority. Black women sometimes make
more money than most black men. This creates problems within the
household because she has now become the breadwinner. Tensions
develop because most men become threatened by this rather than
appreciating that the woman is helping to maintain the
household.
But:
Are these issues that currently exist between
the black male and female a conspiracy? Are these divisions
intentionally placed there to cause confusion? Is this another
“Willie Lynch” tactic that has perpetuated for thousands of
years to continue to divide African-Americans?
Think:
What happened to our men in slavery when they
were beaten? These beatings normally occurred to make our men
look weak before the eyes of our women. What happened to our
women in slavery while dealing with the slave master? Were the
original state of our manhood and womanhood taken, thereby,
creating these divisions that currently exist today?
So:
How do we get back to the original thinking
that use to exist between the male and female? How do we solve
the “wounded” relationship between the male and female? The
answer is simple.
Both the male and female have to remember the
value of family. Family will remain even after all has
vanquished. In order to preserve the sacredness of family, you
must have strong male and female relationships. Each person must
recognize the important role that each has in the development of
the family. Men, you should not become jealous if your wife
makes more money. Be thankful that this woman values you enough
to share her resources to build a strong foundation for you and
her.
Men you must treat your women like QUEENS so
that they will respect you. Women, you must become better at
understanding your man. You have to realize that the black man
has a struggle everyday of his life because he has been
stereotyped as being “no good.” Historically, he was
castrated mentally and physically during slavery. This caused
you to see him as being weak. This was the plan or strategy that
was intended all along. He no longer feels like the KING that he
once was and you must realize that the re-shaping of his mind is
really in your hands.
When a man has the support of his woman, he
feels that there is nothing that he cannot accomplish. When a
woman has the support of her man, she will be there to help him
through everything. Finally, black male and black female, do not
fall for the conspiracy that was laid out during slavery because
you will be sacrificing your future and other generations.
Source: Carolyn Mattocks. Essays of W.I.I.T.S. (Wisdom,
Insight, Inspiration and Truth), Volume I. The Isis Group / P.O. Box
18941 / Baltimore, MD 21206
carolynmattocks@hotmail.com Carolyn Mattocks is
a native of Edwards, North Carolina. She received her B.A.
degree in History from North Carolina Central University. Ms.
Mattocks also received her MPA from North Carolina State
University. She is a writer and a
lecturer. She has done numerous presentations for schools,
community colleges, colleges, churches, and organizations. Ms. Mattocks has taught
courses in American History, African-American History, and
European History. “Carolyn” has a love
for history, which has led to a twelve-year study of the
historical contributions and accomplishments of
African-Americans. Ms. Mattocks was an intern
for the North Carolina State Government, Division of Archives
and History. She managed the Administrative Research Division of
the North Carolina Center for the Study of Black History. She
was also a commentator and analyst for a bi-weekly television
talk show on Cablevision of Durham entitled “The Legacy of
African-American Leadership.” She is a member of the
Association for the Study of African-American History. Ms. Mattocks can also provide educational
lectures and workshops. Carolyn Mattocks / The Isis Group / P.O. Box 18941 /
Baltimore, MD 21206 carolynmattocks@hotmail.com
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Not Gone
With the Wind Voices of Slavery—Henry Louis
Gates, Jr.—9 February 2003—Unchained Memories,
an HBO documentary that makes its debut tomorrow
night, provides a powerful answer to that question.
It gives us, through the faces and voices of
African-American actors, an introduction to a vast
undertaking that took place in the 1930's: the
collection and preservation of the testimonies of
thousands of aged former slaves in an archive known
as the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal
Writers' Project. This archive unlocked the brutal
secrets of slavery by using the voices of average
slaves as the key, exposing the everyday life of the
slave community. Rosa Starke, a slave from South
Carolina, for example, told of how class divisions
among the slaves were quite pronounced:
''Dere was just
two classes to de white folks, buckra slave owners
and poor white folks dat didn't own no slaves. Dere
was more classes 'mongst de slaves. De fust class
was de house servants. Dese was de butler, de maids,
de nurses, chambermaids, and de cooks. De nex' class
was de carriage drivers and de gardeners, de
carpenters, de barber and de stable men. Then come
de nex' class, de wheelwright, wagoners, blacksmiths
and slave foremen. De nex' class I members was de
cow men and de niggers dat have care of de dogs. All
dese have good houses and never have to work hard or
git a beatin'. Then come de cradlers of de wheat, de
threshers and de millers of de corn and de wheat,
and de feeders of de cotton gin. De lowest class was
de common field niggers.''—NYTimes
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Nina Simone—Go
to Hell
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Go to Hell
Lyrics by Nina Simone
If your mind lies
in the Devil's workshop
Evil-doin's your thrill
And trouble and mischief is all you live
for
You know damn well
That you'll go to hell (yeah)
You'll go to hell
Now you're living high and mighty
Rich off the fat of the land
Just don't dispose of your natural soul
'cos if you do you know damn well
That you'll go to hell (yes, you will)
You'll go to hell
Hell
Where your natural soul burns
Hell
Where you pay for your sins
Hell
Keep your children from doing wrong (if
you can)
'cos you know damn well
That they'll go to hell
They'll go to hell
Hell
Man, woman were created
Hell
To live for eternity
Hell
With an apple they ate from the tree of
hate
So you know damn well
Oh... they went to hell (yes, they did)
They went to hell
Some say that hell is below us
But I say it's right by my side
'cos you see evil in the morning
Evil in the evening, all the time
You know damn well
That we all must be in hell
We got to be in hell
We all must be in hell
We must be in hell. |
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.—WashingtonPost |
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Incognegro: A Memoir of
Exile and Apartheid
By Frank B. Wilderson, III
Wilderson, a professor,
writer and filmmaker from
the Midwest,
presents a gripping account
of his role in the downfall
of South African apartheid
as one of only two black
Americans in the African
National Congress (ANC).
After marrying a South
African law student, Wilderson reluctantly
returns with her to South
Africa in the early 1990s,
where he teaches
Johannesburg and Soweto
students, and soon joins the
military wing of the ANC.
Wilderson's stinging
portrait of Nelson Mandela
as a petulant elder eager to
accommodate his white
countrymen will jolt readers
who've accepted the
reverential treatment
usually accorded him. After
the assassination of
Mandela's rival, South
African Communist Party
leader Chris Hani, Mandela's
regime deems Wilderson's
public questions a threat to
national security; soon,
having lost his stomach for
the cause, he returns to
America.
Wilderson has a
distinct, powerful voice and
a strong story that shuffles
between the indignities of
Johannesburg life and his
early years in Minneapolis,
the precocious child of
academics who barely
tolerate his emerging
political consciousness.
Wilderson's observations
about love within and across
the color line and cultural
divides are as provocative
as his politics; despite
some distracting
digressions, this is a
riveting memoir of
apartheid's last days.—Publishers
Weekly
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 25 December
2011
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