Year of strides, strains for Black women - Pt. 3

As 2012 ended, I had the pleasure of interviewing some powerhouse Sisters for The Final Call in the article “Year of strides, strains for Black women,” in Vol. 32 No. 14. 

I asked each of them to reflect on 2012 and what they felt it symbolized for the Black community as a whole and specifically, Black women.  I’ll be posting excerpts from additional thoughts each woman shared that were not included in the article. If you missed the first installment with dream hampton, never fear….just scroll down a little.

Next up…….

Perri Small

Perri Small

Perri is  host of the mid day show on Chicago’s 1690 WVON an historical Black-owned radio station celebrating its 50 year anniversary in 2013. Perri is a self-described political junkie and anyone that tunes in to her show knows the long-time journalist is not one to mince words. Perri shared so much that her analysis is featured in two articles in the new 2013 issue of The Final Call. You can also check out her insight in the article, "Victory in D.C., cries of murder in Florida," also part of 2012 year end coverage!

Black leadership and President Obama

One of the biggest issues that they probably brought to the president is this industrial prison complex and the criminalization of African American men. I think those are at the top of the list because first of all you limit people from earning a living if they have a criminal background if there is no forgiveness with expungements for non-violent crimes.

I think they’re going to talk about being locked out of jobs. There are few African American men who are in leadership roles where they can say, ‘You know what, I’d like to hire Black contractors or I’d like to see Blacks on this work site'".

I mean it is insulting and I look at Ed Gardner (founder of Soft Sheen), this 80-something year old man who is out there fighting the fight that our own Black elected officials here in Illinois seem to ignore.

Black women and reality television

Now I’m going to tell you, I am a reality TV fan. I think they’re disgusting and I sit there and I go, ‘Ew!’, and I wince and I do all of that but it’s so entertaining! What’s so interesting about it is that I see this type of behavior being emulated in the streets. Black women think it’s okay to be loud, to be obnoxious to not be a lady.

I never saw these kind of women growing up and now it’s the norm, to be loud, obnoxious and boisterous, to fight in public. I’ve never seen anything like it and that’s not my idea of what a lady is. My idea of what a lady is are those young women that volunteer at WVON from the Nation of Islam when we have events. Those were real ladies. The ladies that work in our station who do so much work like the late Sharon McGee who dedicated her last years of her life to telling women take care of their reproductive health. These are what I call real women.

Black women and family

I love the fact that Black women are not afraid to be who they are. But I just would like to say, one of the other issues is that I do hear all the time, ‘I don’t need a man, I got my baby’. I think it’s selfish. I think in order to raise healthy children that there has to be two parents. You don’t have to be together necessarily, but you need two parents to raise your children. I don’t understand why, with all  of the contraceptives around today that were not around when we were coming up, why are these women still having babies by men who have multiple babies that they’re not even taking care of them either?

Make sure you stay tuned for my next installment. Next up, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, executive director of the National Council of Negro Women.