Monday's Opening Thought: March 21, 2022

This week's opening thought: The U.S. House of Representatives passed the CROWN Act on Friday. The CROWN Act is a bill that provides federal protection against hair discrimination with a primary focus of combating racial discrimination against Black citizens for hairstyles like braids, cornrows, and locs in federally assisted programs, housing programs, public accommodations, and employment.

The bill was passed along mostly Democratic Party lines 235-189.

Mostly Democratic. Mostly. House Republicans were practically unanimous in their nay vote. House Democrats, part of the party that swears it cares about Black lives while doing performative things like wearing kente cloth and saying horrible things like thanking George Floyd for "sacrificing himself for justice," were not all on board with getting this passed.

Another version of the CROWN Act was previously introduced in Congress and subsequently passed in the U.S. House but has failed to be passed in the U.S. Senate. This one may likely face the same hurdles.

While hair discrimination affects the majority of Black and Brown folx in the United States, Black women and femmes are the most affected when it comes to employment, social service access, and federal assistance.

What does this all mean?

Even when this country doesn't say it out loud, it says "Black women don't matter" loud and clear.

You don't even have to listen that hard to hear it.

On Painful Anniversaries, Anti-Asian Hate, and Solidarity in the Face of Hate

TW: Anti-Asian hate, violence, murder, fetishization.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long murdering eight people in a mass shooting spree at three Atlanta, Georgia, area spas, which Long claims happened due to his "sex addiction." Long's actions led to the senseless murders of Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; Paul Michels, 54; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

The murders of these eight people, living their lives and trying to make a living, were not isolated incidents.

Attacks against Asian Americans have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. The FBI reported an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since 2019. The group Stop AAPI Hate has tracked nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans from March 2020 to December 2021, with more occurring in 2021 than 2020. Most of those incidents targeted women from AAPI communities.

With racial attacks on the rise, AAPI communities are increasingly fearing for their safety with very little accountability for the actions of those initiating hate crimes. A recent survey published this month from the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) found that 74% of Asian American and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing racism and/or discrimination over the last year. 53% said the perpetrator was a stranger or someone they didn't know. For East Asian respondents, in particular, 51% of women said they feel less safe today than at the start of the pandemic.

As we look at the anniversary of a violent and hateful act, I feel so much pain for my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues. As a person of color, a Black person, I feel this pain deeply because I know how terrifying it is to believe you might not make it home today. I know how horrifying it is to think that your loved ones might not make it to the dinner table tonight. But what I really feel, deep inside my soul, is exhaustion.

I'm tired. I've been tired. One thing I'm so tired of is watching as communities of color have to acknowledge painful and traumatizing anniversaries while asking for justice and safety that never come. Many of my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues are also tired. I know many of you are hurting, scared, still trying to reconcile why this has to be your reality and why there is so much hate in this world. I don't have answers. But you do have me – my support, care, and solidarity.

I stand with my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I stand with AAPI women and femmes on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I will always stand with you and fight for your right to live, to exist, to thrive, not to be objectified and fetishized by white supremacy and hate. And we'll keep fighting together to make it so that the only anniversaries we're observing are celebrations, not trauma.

On Dog Power and the Dangers of White Feminists in Film

Beware of the woke white feminist filmmaker. From The Grio:

“Jane Campion is in a bit of hot water after a controversial comment about Serena and Venus Williams at the Critics Choice Awards.

Campion won best director at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday for her Netflix film, The Power of the Dog. During her acceptance speech, she made comments about the legendary tennis players.

At first, Campion seemed to praise the Williams sisters, who were in attendance in support of the film King Richard, a biopic about their father and tennis coach, Richard Williams.

“Venus and Serena, what an honor to be in the room with you,” Campion said. “I’ve taken up tennis. I really have, and when you want to come over and give me lessons, I’d truly love it.”

Then, after acknowledging her fellow nominees as “the guys,” she ended the speech by evoking the Williams sisters again. “Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.”

Campion was making a statement about the competition she faces amongst male directors. She is only the third female filmmaker to win best director at the Critics Choice Awards. She was nominated with Paul Thomas Anderson, Kenneth Branagh, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, and Denis Villeneuve, as reported by Newsweek.

However, many viewers felt Campion referring to the Williams sisters during her speech was unnecessary and uncomfortable and expressed those views on social media.”

UGH.

She won a damn award, and she somehow couldn't stop herself from levying out a microaggression and playing a game of oppression Olympics while belittling two of the greatest athletes in world history as her possible future tennis instructors DURING HER ACCEPTANCE SPEECH. Like, who decides to use their acceptance speech at an award show to take shots at Black women?

White people, that's who.

I'm not even shocked. And you shouldn't be either. White women do this kind of thing in workplaces every day, centering themselves and their struggles as more prevalent and important than those of other women and femmes even when they are in the power position. Sure, Campion has had to fight for her space in Hollywood. But like most white women, she was fighting for spaces and opportunities for white women and not for all women. To allude that Venus and Serena have not had to overcome whiteness, white men, in their sport is ludicrous. Take a glance at who runs the international and national governing bodies of tennis. You'll see a sport governed by whiteness and white men. You don't even need to look that hard to see this. Venus and Serena's accomplishments speak for themselves, especially when you place them under the lens of having to fight for space in a white supremacist, patriarchal structure. There's a reason a movie was made about them and their father. Jane Campion throwing shade at Black women via a backhanded compliment shows how threatened she is by their presence and likely the presence of all Black women she comes in contact with.

This ain't no isolated incident, y'all.

This was something she's done before outside of the public eye that tumbled out on stage for all to see.

Campion's speech exemplifies how many white people, white women, view their struggles as more worthy of a platform and applause, even when their whiteness comes with power and privilege that allows them to achieve success with fewer hurdles.

Enjoy your award, Jane.

On Hot-Takes, Work Ethic, and Wealthy Reality TV "Stars"

If you're a person of privilege who scolds those who don't have the privilege that you have about what you perceive to be their work ethic?

You're legitimately out of touch with what 99% of people in the United States deal with every day.

If you're a multiracial woman with white privilege who has always had it easier than others due to your father's notoriety, family money, and your willingness to put every aspect of your life on television in return for celebrity and cash?

It would be best if you weren't sharing any hot takes about what you perceive as the work ethic of 99% of U.S. Americans.

And if your business advice to women who are starting or looking to start new chapters in their lives and be entrepreneurs is to "get their f---ing asses up and work," followed by "it seems like nobody wants to work these days"?

You're a tool. An insensitive, disconnected, patriarchal, elitist, classist tool. And you're another hurdle, another obstacle in the way of women in the United States having opportunity and equity.

I think it's time for entertainment media to stop interviewing wealthy reality TV stars whose only exposure to the 99% of us who don't have their wealth and privilege is their maid or nanny.

Monday's Opening Thought: March 7, 2022

Image description: Three images of women at protests across the United States, holding protest signs. From left to right: a white woman holding a sign that says "Our lives are on the line"; a Black woman holding a sign that says "We are stronger together"; an illustrated protest sign with a Black woman, her daughter on her shoulders holding a sign that says "Our feminist future." The mother and her daughter are flanked by a Brown woman and a white woman holding up signs that say "Power to the Polls" and "Tax the Rich."

This week's opening thought: This month is Women's History Month in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women's Day. We should all celebrate the impacts, achievements, and the drive and determination of the women in our lives and the women throughout western and world history. They have made our world the rich and lush tapestry of art, ingenuity, passion, empathy, resiliency, and strength that shape our lives.

But then we should all take the words resiliency and strength out back and put them out of their misery so that they never pose harm to another woman ever again.

And when I say "another woman," I mean ALL WOMEN. Don't @ me.

Women have to be resilient and strong because societal cultures are built on patriarchal hate and oppression.

Women have to be resilient and strong because we live in a society that thinks the Weinsteins, Cosbys, R. Kellys, Kanyes, Epsteins, and Trumps of our world should be given the benefit of the doubt when they harm women.

Women have to be resilient and strong because we live in a patriarchal culture that pushes the narrative that it's somehow a woman's fault if they are sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, fetishized, or objectified.

Women have to be resilient and strong because we live in a world that views women as secondary and tertiary citizens undeserving of rights and autonomy over their lives, choices, and bodies.

Women have to be resilient and strong to live, to survive. There is no choice for most women to be anything other than strong or resilient because the patriarchy only offers two options: assimilate and be docile or be harmed until you assimilate and become docile.

Resilient and strong are what women have to be to make their own choices in a world that offers them none.

We need to collectively work toward a world where resilience and strength can be viewed as positive acknowledgments of women's achievements and power and not definitions that box women in from being their whole selves. And the only way to work toward that is to dismantle the patriarchy and build something better.

And that work is not just "women’s work.”