In a message dated 2/25/1999 6:45:47 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Why does anyone have to prove who they are to you? >>
Nikia,
You know why. I know why. I also know that it is very easy to reveal such
mentalities. I have at no point had any stress in my heart, not even a strong
sense of anger when I wrote to mr. dees or anyone on this list. On the
contrary, I have been going through over and over again this CD of a cape
verdean singer until I had learned to use my brasilian portuguese as a means
knowing her cape verdean portuguese. I did the same with my Arabic of Sudan,
Yemen, and match it with the lovely songs on a cd by a maurtanian woman who
sings pure Africa in her mauritania arabic. Full of anger? I was actually more
full of peace - it pulled me to memories of some travels I have taken, people
I have met.
Nikia, I posted something on the protocols of zion, was attacked by mr. dees
and I choose to respond rather than cower in the corner. Sometimes when you
encounter people like that, you need to speak, even harshly, because a
lifetime of being in too many places at too many times and quietly listening
to or reading tones like mr. dees can be as detrimental as smoking - because
it is still pollution of your environment.
Sometime you just have to say NO and say it strongly - not to change them, but
not to have memories of stuff you read people like him write or stuff you
heard them say, not to feel that they spewed out their mentality in your
presence and you never spoke. See, they are used to us not speaking, us not
even being there to hear them say such things, or even to come close to saying
NO.
A man like Joe Dees and I would never really encounter each other, because I
doubt that he would be so bold and so in existence in this realm of reality -
it would be too hard for him to maintain his attitudes, much less be able to
spew them out.
He would be too afraid to encounter men who would not allow him to be that way
towards us, towards black women. And he would encounter black women,
especially the elders, who before I even spoke, would put him back out into
his place, and black women who would gather into a group and destroy.
On this list, he simply finds women who agree with him or are just tolerant of
him, and equally disturbed that I spoke on such issues. Mr. Dees would not
survive on lists of people who would find both amusement and insult in his
arrogance and dating black woman, funded a black student union credentials.
He knows exactly what lists he can survive on, flourish on, and what lists he
would not.
It is only an email list and I take it as such. Joe Dees is some man some
where some name on an email list who is nothing to me and mine and yours. I am
not even elevating my words to him, his words to me, onto the level of
"battle". It is not at all important, not to my life not even to 'the
struggle" - not to our struggle, not to other struggles.
If I felt the need to prove to him who I am what I do, then I would disrespect
both ancestors and living souls, and certainly not be the woman I am.
Nikia, sometimes we take time to verbally slap to remind us that we will at
times need to do that or else our struggle is lost, no matter what other
'struggles' we move into, we see that we encounter the same enemy - just in
other forms, some carrying the confederate flag, some shouting heil hitler,
some marching for women's rights, some shouting save the trees, and some on
eco-feminst email lists. They are so much the enemy that they don't even know
they are the enemy and those that don't agree with it, still support them and
tolerate them in ways that we, our cannot do.
As noted, I focus my life on such things as positive and building and
nurturing as any can be, such as the circle of sisters I noted - black women
from peru, brasil, kuwait, papua new guina, new zealand, morocco, sudan,
colombia, ecuador, puerto rico, cuba - from wherever we are to discuss our
issues our struggles, as part of united nations meeting I have been a part of
for years. We laugh we talk we hurt we learn we share we express all we play
we disagree we love and we long ago blocked joe dees type people, colorless
feminists from trying to take over - such is the power of our collected
strength, enough to keep out the mental colonizers no matter what "issue" they
claim. We name our own issues, name our own solutions and draw upon each other
for our light. This is how I was raised, how I live, people like Joe Dees
aren't even able to get a place in that kind of life.
My ancestors passed onto me lessons of them, but I have been raised surrounded
by such strength, and was never taught fear of such weak ones as dees who
tries to control through an email list. So yes, when I encounter them online,
they are a curiousity to me in that I have heard of them, but wasn't raised to
be afraid or intimidated by them.
I think dees was raised where black people clung unto his liberal man image as
the only other choice they saw was the neo nazi. Either way they want to rule;
I choose neither dominance.
The neo-nazis are not the most dangerous to us - it is the joe dees type who
attempt to be so hidden and insidious, who are sometimes so firmly within
their mental paradigm that they can't even see, they can't even imagine that
they are oppressive or arrogant. They can't see why they should not have the
control and dominance they seek.
In South Africa, a major issue among the Africans is how the so-called
"liberal" whites have begun to complain that blacks want too much, too fast,
and just too much overall, they think blacks should just be happy apartheid is
over, but remain content to be marginalized economically and politically in
their own land, while those liberal whites just replace the apartheid whites,
all the while maintaining their places of elitism and privilege. Why do you
need to have your own businesses when we let you work for us? Why can't you be
happy being our maids and cooks and butlers and musical entertainment and
nannies and such? Why do you want to hold your own political offices, why
can't you just elect us to be your leaders and we will take good care of you?
You know that you don't know how to handle all this complicated political
stuff and you don't have any experience. Why don't you appreciate how hard we
fought for you, why do you disagree with me on this issues, who are you to
disagree with me?
In Australia women like Pauline Hanson appeal to even many of the "liberals"
who are just tired of those aborigines actually wanting to not just be cute
tourist attraction or to be native backdrop for the likes of Crocodile Dun Dee
(any relation?), just like we over here didn't like the poor natives ruled by
Tarzan dee (any relation?) and just like I dislike the same tone of Joe Dum
Dees.
"THE MOST POTENT WEAPON IN THE HAND OF THE OPPRESSOR IS THE MINDS OF THE
OPPRESSED." - Steve Biko
Nicole
