Tuesday, February 5, 2019

THE WHITE REWRITTEN HISTORY OF SALLY HEMINGS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON

 A repost


"Sally Hemings, born in 1773 in Virginia, worked on the Monticello plantation of Thomas Jefferson. She was a nursemaid to his daughter Mary and traveled with the family to Paris. Though it was rumored that she had several children with Jefferson, both the family and [white] historians denied the claim. "
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356#synopsis
There are no known images of Sally Hemings
This is what someone imagined she looked like
Source: pinterest
"The claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello, entered the public arena during Jefferson's first term as president, and it has remained a subject of discussion and disagreement for two centuries."
https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account
"Recent DNA testing has concluded [for white people] however that Hemings’ children are connected to the Jefferson bloodline."
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356#synopsis

"Based on documentary, scientific, statistical, and oral history evidence, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) Research Committee Report on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (January 2000) remains the most comprehensive analysis of this historical topic.  Ten years later, TJF and most historians believe that, years after his wife’s death, Thomas Jefferson [became] the father of the six children...[Sally Hemings is recorded as having given birth to] including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings. 


Historical Background
In September 1802, political journalist James T. Callender, a disaffected former ally of Jefferson, wrote in a Richmond newspaper that Jefferson had for many years "kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves." "Her name is Sally," Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had "several children" by her..."
Source:  https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account



"Jefferson traveled to Paris in 1784 to serve as the American minister to France. He took his eldest daughter, also named Martha, with him, while his two younger daughters, Mary and Lucy, stayed with their relatives, as did Hemings. After Lucy Jefferson died of whooping cough, Jefferson called Mary to Paris in the summer of 1787. The 14-year-old Hemings came with her. Hemings spent the next two years living with the Jeffersons in Paris, along with her brother, James, who served as Jefferson's personal servant. There is strong evidence to suggest that during this time, Jefferson and Hemings began a sexual relationship..."
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356 
* * * * *

LOOK HERE: 

A 14 year old girl who is owned by a forty-plus old white man cannot "begin a sexual relationship" with someone who owns her. I'd argue that a 40 year old slave cannot "begin a sexual relationship." Both of those relationships are rape because the slave has no choice. And raping a 14 year old makes Jefferson a pedophile or something one half step a way from being a pedophile.

Some will argue that "women got married younger back then" The lack of consent aside, I've traced my family's history and the women consistently got married between 19 and 21 years of age. It's amazing how consistent my family's history is on my mother and my father's side.

Jefferson raped a child. Period.


When white historians lie and shade history in their own favor they make movies where Sally is a curvy woman seducing her master. 


This is a still from the movie JEFFERSON IN PARIS.  

The black female stereotype in white imaginations everywhere has the black girl as overly overtly and overly sexual from a young age -- as compared to innocent white girls. For centuries this has made it easier for white historians to believe a man can own a woman and still have the relationship be consensual enough to call it "an affair."


In 12 YEARS A SLAVE, a black filmmaker makes sure that there are two realistic depictions of black women "voluntarily" having sexual relations with white men in the film. 


One of the stories in the movie is about a woman who slept with her white master and kept him happy to save her own life and eventually her children's lives -- which worked until he died. In the movie, we meet her after she's been sold as a result of his death. Her children are taken away and sold elsewhere. 


The other black woman, played by Alfre Woodard, smiles at the white owner has pleasant sex with her in exchange for dressing her in fine linens and letting her sit pretty and drink tea on the porch while he works. This black woman tells Lupita N'yongo's character that there's a special place in hell for all the white slave owners -- because the filmmaker has this character recognizing herself as raped. 

We'll never know how a 14 year old girl like Hemings responded to being forcibly raped or blackmail raped or seduced-by-owner rape. The thing we do know is that the white washing of history has left Thomas Jefferson as one of those superior caliber white men in the minds of white people. 

And anything that white historians add to white supremacy is deadly for black and brown people. 
Donald Trump riding a wave of white supremacy into the White House along with the subsequent rise in hate crimes is proof of this.

Previously unpublished data by the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism show that hate crimes in at least six major urban centers, including New York City, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, registered double-digit increases last year.
Among them:
  •  New York City notched an uptick of 24 percent in hate crimes, the highest in over a decade.
  •  New York state had an increase of 20 percent.
  •  Chicago saw a rise of 24 percent, the highest since at least 2010.
  •  Cincinnati, Ohio, saw hate crimes jump by 38 percent.
  •  Columbus, Ohio, reported an increase of nearly 10 percent.
  •  Montgomery County in Maryland, adjacent to the nation’s capital, had an increase of more than 42 percent.
  •  Seattle, Washington, registered an increase of 6 percent in malicious harassment.
http://www.voanews.com/a/us-hate-crimes-rising-particularly-in-big-cities/3756604.html 

THE ACCURATE TELLING OF HISTORY MATTERS. 

Yeah, history means "his story." The victor (dominate-er) gets to frame the narrative more often than not. But sometimes a lie is a lie is a lie when someone is deliberately white washing history.


Read the fine print.This movie is about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
And the full title says, "Sally Hemings An American Love Story."
And then below the title,  "Bound By Slavery Freed By Love" 

This DVD/Movie cover doesn't just reflect a lie being told about Sally Hemings. The white history articles and white history books and white history movies mentioned above reflect the widespread lies that white people have been telling themselves about the horrors of slavery for centuries. 


This movie SALLY HEMINGS AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY has 4.5 stars out of 5 star rating and is being sold on Amazon.com right now. White people are still telling themselves that white supremacy and slavery was not the horror that it was.

Make no mistake, the cotton was being picked in the south, being processed into material in the north, and sold to Britain. All of the white people in these areas benefited greatly from slavery. American and British capitalism and wealth was built on slavery. We are all benefiting from it to this day (some more than others) That's why so many white people are STILL very invested in making slavery look less horrible than it was.

It's ridiculous that www.biography.com and monticello.org have romance language or white-washy neutral arrangement of language that hides the fact that Jefferson in Paris at 44 years of age while Hemings was 14 when he sent for Hemings (his wife's half sister) the in the very same year his wife died.


There's no romance here or anywhere there's ownership of a black girl child --- depicted as grown woman in white movie after white movie and a white history book near you.

 Bottom Line: Your history source always matters.
Furthermore, 
the personal history of your historian matters
which includes that person's 
race, ethnicity, and gender. 


Some historians try to overcome their personal history and some do not. White people have a crappy record of refusing to overcome their personal histories in an attempt to tell an accurate history. Furthermore, many white historians cannot separate the description "American" from description "white people" when writing about history which is another discussion altogether.
Black people, brown people, and especially white people should read about black history written by black people. You should always read a people's history from one of it's own. When that's not possible, make sure to check and double check what's being said by getting multiple sources....and even then find a source of history from the same demographic that's being reported about.
 

When you get down to wanting to know about black women specifically, refine your sources even more. Read about black women's history as written by black women. Because male supremacy is real too, inside and outside the black community. I learned all kinds of things about Martin Luther King, SNCC, and Marcus Garvey's wife Amy Garvey that I'd never heard before thanks to the writings of black women. 

* * * * * 

And now, a black view of Thomas Jefferson
Headline






The Real (Despicable) Thomas Jefferson

  • ---> Michael Coard
  •    

 READ IT HERE: 
http://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-real-despicable-thomas-jefferson/article_1bbc31a3-74dd-573f-acb0-ad38ab7bc7da.html








THANKHERFORSURVIVING.BLOGSPOT.COM

A THOUGHT ON TRAYVON'S BIRTHDAY: Random Acts Of Violence Are Never Random To the Perpetrator


Trayvon Martin probably died not know who the hell George Zimmerman was or what he wanted other than to sneak up on him and attack him. 

And when Jussie Smollet's perpertrators are caught, if they are caught, the racial and homophobic acts of violence against him will no longer be "random" either.

As for Liam Neeson almost-act of random violence?

What he should have said at the outset is this: "I was surprised to realize I was a racist. I stopped myself hunting for a black person to beat to death after a week, or God did. Then I started looking at how I was raised and why I asked her what the race of her rapist was in the first place."  


Whether Liam Neeson is a racist now or not is beside the question. He most definitely was one during the week he went looking for a "black bastard" (any "black bastard") to beat up on behalf of a friend that was raped. And if some unlucky black man had walked on Neeson on day three of his week long internal racist rampage, he'd essentially be another George Zimmerman.  

Liam Neeson is not anywhere near unique. But I wish he would be. I wish he would admit he picked up and absorbed ambient white supremacy in his family and neighborhood and nearly acted it out. This is the only admission that starts white people on the path to healing themselves as a group.

Monday, February 4, 2019

PSEUDO RACIAL IGNORANCE

Governor Ralph Northam Gives Republicans A Chance To Say 'DEMOCRATS ARE THE REAL RACISTS!"

Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and his Medical School Year Book Photo
(admitted he was in the photo then retracted then started tap dancing.
Democrats & Republicans, both, are calling for his resignation

There's very few people, black or brown that don't know there are white racists on both sides of the aisle. But the GOP hypocrisy here is DEEP in the age of Trump. The GOP ran their boy Gillespie's campaign against Northam using white supremacist dog whistles (bull horns) at every turn. 


That lying racist (or formerly-racist) jackass Northam needs to resign. But never let the GOP's hypocritical b.s. fool you into thinking that white supremacy isn't just laced through the party but a foundational basis of who they are -- even the ones that aren't as overt about their racism as Orange Chump is. 


From VOX
     There’s a clear-cut case to call for Gov. Ralph Northam’s resignation...
     Conservatives watching the controversy unfold were seeing it do so in part through the lens of a story that broke last week, one that had outraged many in the anti-abortion camp of the GOP. In fact, by Friday afternoon, when his bafflingly racist yearbook photograph was first publicized and then verified, Northam was already in boiling political waters — over not race but abortion....
     No wonder, then, that many conservatives connected his abortion comments to his yearbook photograph...
     But there’s something else going on, something deeper: For some on the right, Northam’s photograph served as political vindication, proof positive that Democrats can be just as racist as Republicans...But let’s add more context to the 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election, which was anything but an example of political piety. 

  •      First and foremost, the Gillespie campaign repeatedly attempted to tie Ralph Northam to the violence of the gang MS-13...
  •      And the candidate Gillespie defeated in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Corey Stewart, went on to win the Republican primary for the United States Senate, while enjoying friendships with Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler [an alt-right racist & Charlottesville organizer] 
  •      ...and former Wisconsin Republican House candidate (and anti-Semite) Paul Nehlen, whom Stewart described as a “hero.” 

  • [Gillespie campaign's ]“Trump-Stewart talking points,” Bannon meant not just the ads about MS-13, but two ads paid for by the Gillespie campaign that attacked Northam for supporting the removal of Confederate memorials, and a mailer that attacked NFL players protesting against racial injustice, stating, “You’d never take a knee ... so take a stand on Election Day.”...
...Republicans calling for Northam to resign are doing so more because of his comments on abortion and less so because of the Republican Party’s “tough” stance on racism [..]..." 
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/4/18208410/northam-gillespie-racist-yearbook-conservatives-claim-vindication?

Ralph Northam is probably refusing to resign because he knows the white folks in his state aren't bothered by that photo in the slightest. He knows that this old photo will blow over as quickly as Agent Evil Orange's "shit-hole countries" did for the majority of white republicans in his state.



Sunday, February 3, 2019

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

Feeling Rebloggy



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

BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM

No Mo Hoes

I can't believe I didn't think of this first.

BWAAAAA HA HA HA HA

Please copy this meme and use responsibly in response to misogynistic rants posted by the Asheys or the Hoteppery 


BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Can Believing That Life Is Fair Make You A Terrible Human Being?

"BELIEVING THAT LIFE IS FAIR MIGHT MAKE YOU A TERRIBLE PERSON" is the title of a Guardian Article by Olivia Burkeman that I haven't read yet. 



The book's subject is regarding something the author calls "Just World Hypothesis"

I haven't done anything but skim the article yet because the title all by itself so describes a conversation I had with an unaware, card carrying racist a few years back. 


She was trying to become less racist but having very little success precisely because of...

HER BELIEF THAT LIFE IS BASICALLY FAIR
This is exactly what the worst of unconscious racists have in common, including the ones most likely to willfully not see the pattern of behavior continued by the Zimmermans, Slagers, and Pantaleos. They think life is fair even though, they and other people will claim to understand and believe the words "life is unfair."

Parents start saying these words "life isn't fair," to children young at a fairly young age in an effort to be good parents. But many racists (and sexists) fundamentally believe in their hearts of hearts that UNFAIRNESS has been distributed unequally.


Saying that 
"unfairness has been distributed equally" 
has the same meaning as 
"life is fair" 



But many do not believe this. Know why? Because many people really do believe that life is fair, despite the words  "life is unfair" leaving their lips so often as an empty platitude. 

Some of the privileged, especially the white privileged, only believe in unequal distribution of life-unfairness when person X tells them that they are a member of a tribe starving to death on the other side of the planet. But a person that believes person X about their tribe will deny all day long that unfairness is distributed unequally right here in the United States. 




UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF 
UNFAIRNESS & RACISM

When you do not believe 

that unfairness can be distributed unequally 
within your own area or your own country, 
you start making justifications 
for why those people that are victims of x 
while my people are not victims of x. 

If everybody else 

has it just as good or bad as you do, 
then it must be that 
those people 
did something to bring x on themselves.' 

In contrast, if another set of victims called "y" 

look just *just like us*  
then this is point at which well, 
something real and really bad must have happened 
and might ALSO happen to US, (me and my group.)

And when something bad happens to me-and-mine or somebody that looks like me-and-mine, then justice must be done, someone must be punished!  Laws must be changed....if policeman are killing people at will and getting away with it!

There is so much of just-world-theory inside, outside and weaving through unconscious racism and unconscious misogyny in the United States that I wonder if we'll ever know everything that happened to black women who have been shot by police, people like Miriam Carey  



UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF UNFAIRNESS & SEXISM

Black women haven't gotten nearly the time, attention, and research when they've died in police custody...mostly because the black community does not make stories of police murder of black women go viral nearly as quickly as it does police murder of black men. 

And it's hard to make the argument in an environment where, not only do black people think unfairness is distributed equally between black men and black women, between light-skinned blacks and dark-skinned blacks. 

The black community is also a location where there is a phony but prevalent assumption that black men endure from white supremacy more and that the sexism and misogyny that black women endure is minimal-to-nonexistent --this, despite high rates of black female death due to domestic violence.

CONCLUSION: UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF UNFAIRNESS

It is true that everybody has problems. But everybody doesn't have the same number of systemic social ills such as racism, sexism, colorism, etc. 

And even within a demographic where individuals are enduring the same number of systemic social ills, the individuals can have differing amounts of family support, disposable income, etc. A lot of things, that are too long to list here, can make a large difference in an individual person's ability to deal with whatever has been put on their plate to deal with.

Something to keep this in mind for the rest of your life: Life is not fair because u
nfairness is not fairly distributed. 




Friday, February 1, 2019

SO HOW MUCH AFRICAN IS IN THE AVERAGE AFRICAN AMERICAN?

a repost


Exactly How "Black" Are Black Americans?

* According to Ancestry.com, the average African American is 65 percent sub-Saharan African, 29 percent European and 2 percent Native American.

* According to 23andme.com, the average African American is 75 percent sub-Saharan African, 22 percent European and only 0.6 percent Native American. 

* According to Family Tree DNA.com, the average African American is 72.95 percent sub-Saharan African, 22.83 percent European and 1.7 percent Native American.

* According to National Geographic's Genographic Project, the average African American is 80 percent sub-Saharan African, 19 percent European and 1 percent Native American.

* According to AfricanDNA, in which I am a partner with Family Tree DNA, the average African American is 79 percent sub-Saharan African, 19 percent European and 2 percent Native American.
 [The numbers above describe "admixture" And] what exactly is admixture?

I asked a few prominent geneticists to define it for this article. Dr. George Church, a professor at the Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in the mapping of the human genome, defines it this way: 


"Genetic admixture is the breeding between two or more previously isolated populations." 



[The second  thing] these findings show that the common claim that many African Americans make about their high percentage of Native American ancestry is a myth. Joanna Mountain broke down to me our low amounts of Native American ancestry in this way: "Eighty percent of African Americans have  less than 1 percent Native American ancestry. 
* * * * *
You can't throw a stick in a room full of black people hit somebody that does NOT claim to have a Cherokee or two in their blood line. So that last quote is surprising.

But I have a theory.

I think it was easier for black slave women to say to their light-skinned children, "Your Daddy was an Native American that was killed" than it was to say "Your Daddy is a white rapist that lives in the big house and will kill you or sell you if you say it out loud to anybody, ever." How is small child supposed to remember not to say anything. And "Who is my Daddy" is not a question that goes away.  I think a bunch of us were lied to about Great Great Aunt Sophie that was a full Cherokee with hair length down to the back of her knees. 

Read More http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/02/how_mixed_are_african_americans.html?wpisrc=root_lightbox 

****************************************

Thursday, January 31, 2019

KERRY WASHINGTON ON CELEBRITY AND ACTIVISM



feeling rebloggy
AS: Your activism is really inspiring. As a talented and hugely successful actress, do you feel that you have a certain role or responsibility in the movement for social justice? 
KW: No. I always say to people I don’t participate in the political process as a “celebrity” or person in the public eye. I come from a political family. Talking politics and social issues, it was at the dinner table. It was a part of how I was raised. Giving back and participating in our democracy is part of how I was raised. When I became of the age to vote, it was like a big rite of passage party. My parents took me out to dinner, we talked about who I was going to vote for, and how I was going to decide. I participate in my democracy because I feel really lucky to live in a representational democracy where my leaders only know how to lead if I’m in communication with them. I know how many people have died for me to have this right. I know that the original Constitution of the United States, according to that document, I would be 3/5 of a person, as a person of African-American descent. I know that women went to prison in petticoats for me as a woman to have the right to vote. I don’t take my identity as an American, as a member of this democracy, lightly. I feel that we should all be participating. I don’t feel a responsibility as a celebrity, I feel a responsibility as an American, as a person of color, as a woman. 
AS: What is your favorite thing about being feminist?KW: The term feminist is so inclusive now. There isn’t one way to be a feminist or to practice feminism, to exercise feminism. You can be feminist in lots of different ways because the point is freedom of choice.
I also want to say that I very much identify with the term womanist, but I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. I also identify as a humanist. I don’t think that either of those terms are mutually exclusi
ve. 

AS: Who are your favorite fictional heroines, and who are your heroines in real life?KW:  Well my mom is one of my heroines in real life…Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Diahann Carroll. Oh god, there’s so many. You know, my grandmother...  
Oh, you know what, I have to say that one of my real life heroines is Barbra Streisand. I just think she’s never accepted anybody else’s limitations or definitions. She is such a hero of mine. She worked on stage, on film. She’s been an actor, a singer, a director. She’s written books. She’s so politically active. She has a family. She was told she doesn’t fit within stereotypical ideas of beauty at the time and it didn’t matter. She didn’t change...
Read More: http://feministing.com/2012/06/02/the-feministing-five-kerry-washington/

Kerry Washington is one of the black feminists that stood up to be counted for the #MuteRKelly section of the #MeToo & #TimesUp movements.

Happy 42nd Birthday To Her!


Wednesday, January 30, 2019

WHAT I'VE LEARNED by Aja Monet

Aja Monet does the kind of poetry that people who don't get poetry...actually get.  Worth listening to more than once.

Race
Class
Gender
Self-Love

Interdependence

She covers it all. 


Aja Monet
Poet, Feminist, Activist




I know cloud formations
that raindrops don't fall in a teardrop shape
they originally fall in the shape of a flat oval
I don't remember where I read that
...
how to be broken and put together again


I know my arms are long

and my hands remind me of vines
I know laughter
sometimes sounds like bubble wrap
and it's my favorite part of unpacking boxes


When I smile I quint my eyes

i know men with deep diaphram laughter
and lady bugs aren't really ladies..


I know they like to follow me into subway cars

on days when I need to be reminded of magic


I know spider webs sparkle like diamonds after rainshowers

I know yestedfay is the day before tomororw
and tomrrow is an illusion where I imagine...




LISTEN TO THE REST 

          OF 

"WHAT I'VE LEARNED"



Tuesday, January 29, 2019

OPRAH'S TIMES UP SPEECH ONE YEAR LATER


"Thank you, Reese. In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother's house in Milwaukee watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for best actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope and said five words that literally made history:" The winner is Sidney Poitier." Up to the stage came the most elegant man I ever remembered. His tie was white, his skin was black—and he was being celebrated. I'd never seen a black man being celebrated like that. I tried many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl, a kid watching from the cheap seats as my mom came through the door bone tired from cleaning other people's houses. But all I can do is quote and say that the explanation in Sidney's performance in Lilies of the Field: "Amen, amen, amen, amen."

In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille award right here at the Golden Globes and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award. It is an honor—it is an honor and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who have inspired me, who challenged me, who sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible. Dennis Swanson who took a chance on me for A.M. Chicago. Saw me on the show and said to Steven Spielberg, she's Sophia in 'The Color Purple.' Gayle who's been a friend and Stedman who's been my rock.

I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. We know the press is under siege these days. We also know it's the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice. To—to tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times, which brings me to this: what I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. And I'm especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. Each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell, and this year we became the story.

But it's not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It's one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace. So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. They're the women whose names we'll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they're in academia, engineering, medicine, and science. They're part of the world of tech and politics and business. They're our athletes in the Olympics and they're our soldiers in the military.

And there's someone else, Recy Taylor, a name I know and I think you should know, too. In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and mother walking home from a church service she'd attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six armed white men, raped, and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, but her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice. But justice wasn't an option in the era of Jim Crow. The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. Recy Taylor died ten days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up.

Their time is up. And I just hope—I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented, goes marching on. It was somewhere in Rosa Parks' heart almost 11 years later, when she made the decision to stay seated on that bus in Montgomery, and it's here with every woman who chooses to say, "Me too." And every man—every man who chooses to listen.

In my career, what I've always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave. To say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere, and how we overcome. I've interviewed and portrayed people who've withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again."




OPRAH WINFREY ON AUTHENTIC POWER AND THE SCHOOL SHE BUILT FOR GIRLS

feeling rebloggy



"Oprah Winfrey, recognized for her charity work with the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, was the only one to receive a standing ovation at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon presented by Lifetime."

From 2015