The universality of human rights continues to be contested by cultural relativists. Cultural relativists accept the notion that culture and cultural “tradition” trumps international human rights law. However, not only are cultural relativists accepting this notion, but by accepting it, they are also accepting that half of the human race, women, are legally unequal. Most, [...]
Continue reading …—who is she and where is she going? Over the past few weeks there has been an obsessive-like focus on the fact that many professional (accomplished) black women remain unmarried and childless well into their 40s. ABC, 20/20, The New York Times, and MSNBC have all spotlighted this topic. There can be no doubt that [...]
Continue reading …The secret is officially out: the marriage prospects of single, professional African American women are dismal. For the proliferating numbers of single Black women, this is surely no secret, but since ABC’s Nightline aired the latest siren call at the end of last year about the increasing numbers of single Black women and the disproportionate [...]
Continue reading …I went to graduate school to become a psychologist in the 1980s. In that era, the real examinations of my graduate education came not from mid-terms, finals and comprehensive exams, but from whether or not I could articulate and demonstrate my black racial identity to the black community and my degree of feminism to my [...]
Continue reading …There are those who choose to take jobs that almost immediately make them unpopular, at least unpopular to those factions that are always on the opposing side. Theresa “Huck” Two Bulls chose to run for the presidency of the Oglala Sioux Tribe knowing full well that it would probably be the most difficult job she [...]
Continue reading …When it was published in 1981, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color was a vermilion ink bloom on the crisp white wedding dress of the U.S. feminist movement. It was meant to be shocking. This anthology of prose and poetry by Black, Latina, Asian, Native American women was the first [...]
Continue reading …In the Nov./Dec. issue of Utne Magazine, Alexis Pauline Gumbs was recognized as a “media activist” in an article entitled “50 People Who Are Changing Your World.” I initially discovered her work in a November 2009 op-ed piece, “The Revolution Will Be Blogged” for Wiretap Magazine, a re-envisioning of Gil Scott Heron’s famous 1970’s poem/song [...]
Continue reading …I am the history of rape I am the history of the rejection of who I am I am the history of the terrorized incarceration of myself I am the history of battery assault and limitless armies against whatever I want to do with my mind and my body and my soul and whether it’s [...]
Continue reading …CEDAW and the Stupak-Pitts Amendment The United States is one of seven countries that have yet to ratify The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Alongside the United States are Iran, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, Somalia and Sudan.[i] In summary, CEDAW addresses basic human rights of women [...]
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