Halle Amor Moore Publishes Book Of Feminist Poetry At 9 Years Old

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     THE PAGES OF LIFE book about a year to conceive. Being a poet is just one of her many dreams. According to her site, Halle hopes to go to law school and help shape public policy. She is an activist, a speaker and high achiever...
     Ultimately, she wants to inspire others to make their dreams come true. "Unlock the great power within you and not only will your heart be set free," she believes, "but your mind will too."

~Blavity

Read More: 

https://blavity.com/at-only-9-years-old-maryland-girl-publishes-feminist-book-of-poetry?

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Pages-Life-compilation-stories-speeches/dp/179306749X

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Repost: The Conscious Kid Library’s 26 (+4) Children’s books to support conversations about race, racism, and resistance

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This list was curated by The Conscious Kid Library and American Indians in Children’s Literature, in partnership with Raising Race Conscious Children.

Research from Harvard University suggests that children as young as three years old, when exposed to racism and prejudice, tend to embrace and accept it, even though they might not understand the feelings. By age 5, white children are strongly biased towards whiteness. To counter this bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible. Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these critical conversations; and they can also be used to model what it means to resist and dismantle oppression.

Beyond addressing issues of race and racism, this children’s reading list focuses on taking action. It highlights resistance, resilience and activism; and seeks to empower youth to participate in the ongoing movement for racial justice. These books showcase the diverse ways people of all ages and races have engaged in anti-racist activism, and highlight how race intersects with other issues, such as capitalism, class and colonization. The majority of books center activists of color, whose lives and bodies have been on the front lines of racial justice work, yet whose stories often go untold....

THE ENTIRE LIST OF BOOK TITLES IS REPRINTED HERE just in case the website goes away as it did from the first place I saw it.

The authors' names, descriptions and age appropriateness of each book at the link at the bottom of the list.  Most of the books on this list are for small children as young as 4 to 8 years old, and some can be read to children even younger 

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation

When We Were Alone 

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song

Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X

Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis

She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez 

Nelson Mandela
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America
Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story
As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom
We March
That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
Josephine
Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History
Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers
Rosa
Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down

READ MOREhttp://immigrantchildren.ca/2017/12/07/repost-the-conscious-kid-librarys-26-childrens-books-to-support-conversations-about-race-racism-and-resistance/

RESOURCES

THE CONSCIOUS KID LIBRARY

 www.theconsciouskid.org

American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL)

 https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

EmbraceRace

https://www.embracerace.org/

I don't think any black girls library should be without books on Ida B Wells, Daisy Bates, or the black women who won the space race for the United States ( of HIDDEN FIGURES movie fame) So here are a few more titles I found at Amazon. But I haven't read them. So, they may be for older children



Ida B Wells: Let The Truth Be Told by 
    Walter Dean Myers

Hidden Figures
     Margot Lee Shetterly

The Power Of One: Daisy Bates And The Little Rock 9  
     Dennis Brindell Fradin

Little Leaders: Bold Women In Black History 

     Vashti Harrison

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BEYONCE REVEALS THE FEMINIST LEGACY SHE INTENDS TO LEAVE HER CHILDREN

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Beyonce
by
Tyler Mitchell

From The LEGACY Section of Beyonce's Vogue Article (Sept 2018)

My mother taught me the importance not just of being seen but of seeing myself. 

As the mother of two girls, it’s important to me that they see themselves too—in books, films, and on runways. It’s important to me that they see themselves as CEOs, as bosses, and that they know they can write the script for their own lives—that they can speak their minds and they have no ceiling. They don’t have to be a certain type or fit into a specific category. They don’t have to be politically correct, as long as they’re authentic, respectful, compassionate, and empathetic.  

They can explore any religion, fall in love with any race, and love who they want to love. 

I want the same things for my son. 

I want him to know that he can be strong and brave but that he can also be sensitive and kind. I want my son to have a high emotional IQ where he is free to be caring, truthful, and honest. It’s everything a woman wants in a man, and yet we don’t teach it to our boys.

I hope to teach my son not to fall victim to what the internet says he should be or how he should love. I want to create better representations for him so he is allowed to reach his full potential as a man, and to teach him that the real magic he possesses in the world is the power to affirm his own existence.

Read More / Read It All:  

https://www.vogue.com/article/beyonce-september-issue-2018 

This Represents The first Vogue Cover Done By A Black Photographer
File This Under: Things you thought happened decades ago

Beyonce's entire article is worth reading. 

Some black women have been copying out sections on her pro-black stance or overcoming white supremacist assumptions. Others have been copying out the section on body positivity while others are copying out the sections on the struggles she had overcoming her family legacy. Most important for the young black girls who read this article is this:  

"I’m not happy if I’m not improving, evolving, moving forward, inspiring, teaching, and learning." 

Feminism may be a fad for some of her fans. But it isn't for her It is more than just music and style and talents as an entertainer that are growing.  She is ever evolving, as a feminist woman and mother.

If "generational curses" are psycho-emotional things, as I've long suspected they are, she has broken the chain.  Blue, Rumi, and Sir will not repeat their parents mistakes and continue a "lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust."

Everything isn't hers to control. But it seems clear that Beyonce is going to give her children the best foundation she can so that they won't have to learn the very same lessons she did by trial and error.

They'll be able to make new mistakes, ones that don't involve failing to be able to see their own worth. 

It is black feminist parents like Beyonce, Michelle and Barack Obama, and eventually Kofi Siriboe that are going to change this world.

BLaCKCHiCKRoCKeD.BLoGSPoT.CoM 

THE FAILURE OF MICHAEL B JORDAN TO SEPARATE ARTIST FROM THE ART OF RAISING DION

I don't remember what Michael B Jordan specifically said 2 to 5 years back that made black women so angry he felt he had to defend himself by saying something like he can't dislike black women because his mother is a black woman. And I don't care.

But where there is smoke, there is fire. And black women have seen this particular smoke before.

Despite some black female prayers that Jordan was dating Lupita N'yongo earlier this year, most of us knew that it was only a matter of time before we saw him continue to step out with white woman after white woman after nearly-white woman.

Within the last few weeks, Jordan has been accused of throwing a yacht party in Italy with his white girlfriend where there wasn't a black woman in sight.

There could be a pale black woman outside this shot. But I doubt it. And it doesn't even matter because (ha-ha) Killmonger's lack of regard for black women had already been well established.

But this isn't about that.

This is about the fact that SOME black men in Hollywood who date outside the race **OR** pale-mixed-race looking women almost exclusively are not doing so based on love -- which does have some affect on the rest of us...because you really can't separate the art from the artist.

In fact, I can only think of two or three black men dating outside the race in Hollywood, Music and Sports who actually do or say anything positive toward black women who are dark-skinned and immediately identifiable as black as opposed to mixed-race-black.

Susan Kelechi Watson of THIS IS US
B4 hey blacked-up her hairz

Why is this important? Because your attitudes toward half of blackness is going usually going to come out in your art. 

Again, if somebody other than 
married-to-a-black-LOOKING-woman Ryan Coogler 
had made BLACK PANTHER 
we might not have seen a Kim Kardashian look-alikes 
playing Shuri and Okeye 
but we damn sure would have seen a
THIS IS US looking black women playing the DORA MILAJE



...which brings me back to Michael B Jordan's vision of RAISING DION. 

Michael B Jordan & "Raising Dion" Comic 

A man named Dennis Liu created the comic RAISING DION.

And in the comic book itself and the youtube video that he created to advertise(?) the comic book, the boy and his mother look like medium to dark-skinned black people.

Raising Dion YOUTUBE stills

Yet, this is who I saw cast first for the NETFLIX television series that Michael B Jordan is producing based on the same comic book

Alisha Wainright as Mom in RAISING DION

Later we saw that this is the little boy who was cast to be Dion

Ja'siah Young

Michael B Jordan appeared to have a bone marrow deep colorism problem before he was involved in RAISIHNG DION. That is, it appers he has a bone-marrow deep inability to see beauty in anything that isn't a white woman or in close proximity to a white woman. And so it shouldn't be shocking that this is oozing out of what he creates.

I'm guessing that he chooses the women he finds beautiful FIRST, then casts everybody else around them -- because you don't see too many light-skinned black males cast very often either. 

(As dark skin is associated with aggressiveness in the patriarchal-ly racist USA and aggressiveness is seen as "good" in men but not women, I'm guessing this is why behind no dark-women/ no light men wanted in Hollywood)

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE FAILURE OF ARTIST TO SEPARATE SELF FROM ART 
Nate Parker's disregard for all women was made crystal clear when he tried to defend himself regarding rape charges he beat when he was in college

And when I finally saw his movie on HBO --BIRTH OF A NATION -- a movie I'd been looking forward to for more than a year before I heard him cry for himself over what sounded like legit rape charges-- it shouldn't have been surprising that black women were used as props to make the black men look like heroes in BIRTH OF A NATION. 

Gabrielle Union's character didn't even speak. His wife's rape was placed in the story as an affront to his manhood, her character barely made two dimensional, much less three.

A THIRD EXAMPLE OF THE FAILURE OF ARTIST TO SEPARATE SELF FROM ART

Within the last year or John Ridley (12 YEARS A SLAVE), produced a series about how the Black Power Movement played out in Great Britain. There was a love story at the center of his story but Ridley didn't cast a black woman as the co-star 

When he was pressed on this point -- and on the fact that he DID cast a dark-skinned black woman as a traitor in one of the first episodes -- he cried and told his critical black women in the auditorium where he was speaking that he wanted to show/teach the audience that many different races contributed to that resistance 

...and he wanted to make sure his wife felt included.

Who a person is comes out in what they create. In my mind, this is pretty close to THE reason for creativity's existence. I don't know who came up with "separate the art from the artist" But that's a bunch of crap from where I sit. 

Now...DO NOT HEAR ME CYBER-SAY that every black man who hooks up with a white woman or light woman is looking for a status symbol in her skin color as she hangs on his arm.

DO NOT HEAR ME CYBER-SAY every black man who is pictured with a white woman or light woman is just using her.

But black men are being bombarded by white as beautiful day-in and day-out. We all are. And well before television and movies ever existed whites were finding ways to tell blacks that they were better, stronger, faster, and more beautiful.  

And WE ALL should KNOW that some black men believed white people so deeply that they accepted Miss Anne's invitation to have sex between the years of 1621 and 1968 --at the literal risk of their own necks. 

Some black men like the status symbols of manhood so much -- and that's what a white woman or light woman becomes when she is sexually objectified-- that 1 out of 8 of black men actually voted for Donald Trump.

All that this 13% of black men can see when they look at him is that he is rich, large and in charge -- his virulent racism be damned if they can find hand holds enough to climb he white supremacy and come out on top as a "real man."  

 And follows is just as bad in my mind

Currently, too large a section of black women are so deep into the competition to get a limited edition, black man's attention that they are wearing waist-length straight weaves -- which aren't cheap to get or maintain. (I'll wear whatever hair style I want, when I want. But when you do that 24/7/365 instead of a couple of months out of the year, it might be more than just fashion choice. Just a thought)

Furthermore, black women (and latino and asian women) are also seeking out skin bleaching creams; and they are doing this for logical if bad reasons. These wanna-be-pale sistahs know they cannot be chosen as status symbols unless they are as close to white women in appearance as possible.    

For some poor women without much education, being dark skinned has been so painful that they are taking pills to try an ensure their children won't face the same discrimination and pain they themselves suffered -- from their own people, from other black people before they even have to deal with white people.

All of this together means that it would be foolish of us, as black people, to NOT LOOK and see if a black person's "dating preferences" aren't more than that, that colorist motives aren't seeping out in the black images he or she is producing for black consumption.

I don't care who some of these black men were dating BEFORE they were rich and famous. The O J Simpons and Bill Cosbys and Michael B Jordans of this world are sometimes unleashed as who they truly are only when they get enough money that they feel they don't have to answer to anybody.

When black women saw Michael B Jordan's dating habits as a possible problem, he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near RAISING DION.

#ListenToBlackWomen has more than one use.

I'm sure this project is going to go forward and be successful. But to me that's the problem.

COSBY, A DIFFERENT WORLD, MY WIFE AND KIDS, BLACKISH, and GROWNISH all started off with casting bi-racial girls as the sexy "black" teenage daughters that the father has to guard. Most of us didn't notice this at all -- and have STILL made no connection between that -- what our minds are being fed through black entertainment-- to what black men prefer in a mate once they get a little money in their pocket, which in turn influences black girls "fashion" choices.

Again, when that colorism-brainwashed black man gets rich in Hollywood he gets to feed us more of the same colorism his own mind was destroyed by.

RAISING DION may make a lot of people happy and rich. But it's going to be another successful looking fail for black folks and especially black children...again.

Dennis Liu's 2015 vision of RAISING DION
from YOUTUBE

BLaCKCHiCKRoCKeD.BLoGSPoT.CoM

WHEN MOTHER'S DAY ISN'T SIMPLE

For those having a COMPLICATED MOTHER'S DAY, you are not alone.

Sometimes mothers choose themselves and leave.

Sometimes mothers choose themselves and stay.

Sometimes mothers choose a man and leave.

Sometimes mothers choose a man and stay

Motherhood is not magic but a choice. And some of our mothers chose badly even though SOME of them are not bad people.

If you're having a complicated mothers day, hopefully you have a grandmother or Aunt who filled the role better than your designated biological unit

If not, I pray you've taken responsibility for yourself, grieved, and moved on -- having a shallow relationship or no relationship, whichever takes up the least mental and emotional energy.

Regardless of the low empathy think, we all have choices. And when the plane is going down you have to put your own gas mask on first. So, take care of yourself then move on to see what is left for the other, if anything. See what's left even if that other is a mother that didn't put you first when you were a child. If nothing much is left, then...keep living your life with your head up.

SPARE THE KIDS NOT THE ROD

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Author Stacey Patton said,

I often hear Black parents say, "I'm raising a strong and powerful Black child." But then, they don't allow their child to disagree with them or show anger.

Raising a strong and powerful child means learning to live with one!

Your child must be able to stand up to you and be heard. If you don't practice this within your home while your child is young, then how do you expect them to learn how to stand up to classmates, teachers, an intimate partner, future bosses, racists?

Raising a powerful child means teaching them to be clear in their disagreements. Denying them a voice and the ability to express the full spectrum of their emotions, including anger, teaches your child to give up their convictions to maintain false harmony. And ultimately, we end up priming Black children to submit to the oppressive systems that target them.

Children should be SEEN AND HEARD.

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WERE DEVONTE HART AND HIS 5 ADOPTED SIBLINGS MURDERED IN A SUICIDE PACT or MURDER-SUICIDE PLOT?

Devonte Hart is something of a celebrity after hugging a police officer during a Black Lives Matter protest in Ferguson. 

He died in a car crash, after the car he was apparently driven off a cliff in Mendocino California

BACKGROUND:

One of the mothers plead guilty to child abuse in 2011. 

Neighbors called family services on the two white women after DeVonte and one of the other children came to their home to complain about the home.

The car likely contained all eight of family members as it went off the cliff at approximately 90mph, with no skid marks, no indications of braking.

Three of the children's bodies, including DeVonte's have not been found.

Read More: 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/familys-fatal-cliff-car-crash-was-intentional-police-say_us_5ac188c0e4b055e50ace9fda

There is a question as to whether the famous Ferguson photo at the top was staged

Apparently Devonte was crying before the photo was taken

It's possible, just possible, that the photo was more staged than organic. But decide for yourself.  Read the words of another photographer that was there at the moment of this famous Ferguson photo. 

From 2014, THE COMPLEX

Every picture I’ve seen of this crops out the circus of photographers that surrounded these two creating a captive audience. With such a captive audience I can’t really say that the officer did anything that his superiors wouldn’t have told him to do. They were there just as much for public relations as to keep the peace otherwise the dept. wouldn’t have sent every queer looking, POC and female cop on the force.

The way this image has been propagandized is highly disturbing to me because it distracts from the real issues. This has never been about the relationship between individual officers and young Black men, but about the way in which our institutions and society protect cops, granting them license to use lethal force in ANY circumstance. Whether they do use it or decide to demonstrate “love” is irrelevant.’

I would like to add that Devonte was crying before approaching the officer while he was talking to his guardian, presumably because he was terrified. This brings the question of coercion to my mind, but I’ll let ya’ll debate over it.”

Read More: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/12/was-the-ferguson-protest-hug-photo-staged 

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