I just finished a stint in @Twitter jail for "hate speech" (I quoted Jay-Z's song "The Ballad of OJ & used the N word instead of some euphemism like ni99a).
Whoever is in charge of "hate speech" at @Twitter is more dedicated to silencing black folk than actual hate speech.
Recently I gave a brief, incomplete primer on white supremacy. Any time I discuss racism, I’m obligated to confront my own internal biases, and check my own internalized #misogyny.
@Twitter What follows is directed to any men reading this. Any women reading this: please feel free to add to, amend, or correct this diatribe. The LAST thing I want to do is mansplain misogyny to women.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams It’s clinging to the belief that men are just physically stronger, in defiance of the existence of Mahailya Reeves, the 15 year old girl who can bench press almost 400 pounds.
Let's not even talk about childbirth.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams It’s the fight women have endured in order to fight in the armed services because they are just “too delicate.”
Patriarchy is restricting a woman’s right to own property and generate wealth for thousands of years.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams It’s the anachronistic practice of a woman (and any children a relationship might bear) taking the last name of a man, as if she (and her kids) are property and not people.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams Patriarchy is women inventing brewing and distilling, and men, drunk on ale and spirits, calling them witches and burning them at the stake, for possessing knowledge they didn’t understand.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams Patriarchy is the insane beauty standard women are held to, where their worth as humans is determined by male gaze, and the immensity of industry dedicated to making and keeping women insecure about their physical appearance.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams A woman’s value is intrinsic and not in any way tied to her ability to attract (or keep) a sexual or romantic partner.
Patriarchy is how we teach girls, who are discouraged from pursuing science, technology, engineering, & math.
Patriarchy is needing the Bechdel test in any form of entertainment, be it movies, TV, music or literature, as if the only value women have is in relation to a man.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams It’s a fact that the majority of elementary school teachers are women, while they are a minority of college professors and deans, despite the fact that Fatima bint Muhammad, an Arabic woman, established the first ever institute of higher learning in 859 C.E.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams Patriarchy is organized religion being run mostly by men, while women make up the majority of practitioners.
Patriarchy is referring to a male as female (or feminine) and having that be pejorative.
Patriarchy is the phrase "consensual sex." Non-consensual sex, is rape.
The idea that women are deserving of less money or orgasms than men is moronic; even worse is the idea that a woman’s money or sex life only has value in relation to a man’s needs.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams If you aren’t personally doing what you can to end the pay/orgasm gap, you’re passively supporting patriarchy.
Patriarchy is men occupying most of the space as chefs and restaurant owners, when women have been in charge of food gathering and preparation for thousands of years.
Patriarchy is women paying higher insurance rates than men, despite the inarguable fact that men are more prone to dumb stunts and life-endangering stupidity.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams It's the expectation of their ability to use sex as a panacea any time a man threatens their autonomy, then demonizing them for enjoying sex.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams Patriarchy is having most of your world leaders be men despite the fact that women outnumber men, and are arguably better at governing than men are.
Don’t believe this? Do some research on Rwanda.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams They have the most aggressive economic growth in the world at the moment, a direct result of the fact that 68% of their government is women.
All it took to put women in charge in Rwanda was a genocide.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams I attribute women’s superior governing skills to their developing communal thought over thousands of years as a survival technique.
In a general sense, if you put a man in charge, he creates policy that will benefit him (or those like him) and protects his power.
It’s also the gatekeepers of all media being male.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams@ewarren@KamalaHarris Patriarchy is crippling the future of your country because girl babies are discarded or mutilated at birth, or sold, because they don’t hold the same value as males, and then having ten adult men for every woman, and wondering why your population growth is stymied.
Patriarchy is assuming women take self defense classes for self-protection, and not because they enjoy hitting things.
@Twitter@Simone_Biles@serenawilliams@ewarren@KamalaHarris@Malala Patriarchy is baked into EVERYTHING. It's not all hate but it's okay with cultural, political, and financial dominance. It's a pathogen: you may not even be aware you have it, because you don't show symptoms.
The only antibody for #patriarchy is active anti-sexism.
Maybe.
Maybe my grandfather, a classically trained concert pianist, couldn't get work in his profession of choice because he 'didn't work hard enough." Maybe my father's father could only get work as a piano tuner, even though he was a master musician.
Maybe my other grandfather, a trained chef, never owned a restaurant of his own because he "lacked discipline." Maybe my Mom's dad never made it out of the back of the house because he didn't have the 'entrepreneurial spirit."
Maybe my Dad, who could read music before he could read, who composed his first concerto at 6, gave his first solo performance at 8, mastered 15 instruments, never got his big break because he just lacked star quality.
I call you friends with no cynicism. Historically, the majority of my friends have always been white. This is circumstantial.
When you are the only Black kid in your school, the only Black man at your job, when you've broken as many "First Black To (fill in the blank) barriers as I have, statistically speaking you're going to be surrounded by white people.
Understand: these environments are inherently hostile to me. Still, I have always drawn out people of genuinely good intent.
The circumstances which so often made me the only non-white person in your circles were not accidental; they are so by design.
One of my best friends caught Covid-19 in March of last year.
He is young (40ish), enjoyed sparkling health, a vibrant mind (he's one of the few people who can trash me at word games), and a robust immune system.
In his words contracting the coronavirus was the closest he'd ever come to death.
He survived. But he's what has come to be known as a Covid Long Hauler. He describes this a "a living hell; same guy, same mind, but imprisoned in a body that is attacking itself."
It has been almost a year since he "recovered." Because this is a novel coronavirus, doctors have no idea how to treat Post Acute Covid-19 Syndrome.
This morning I resigned from the Education Committee of @bcbrooklyn.
I am resigning in protest to their decision to hold an in-person convention in Brooklyn NY this summer, over my stringent objections, and suggestions for virtual contingency plans.
In 2019 I was asked to be part of the inaugural Education Committee for BCB. This request came after complaints of the woeful lack of diversity in their education., both in subject matter and presenters.
My acceptance made me the ONLY Black male on both the education committees for BCB and Tales of the Cocktail, two global leaders in hospitality education.
This Tuesday I noticed BCB announced an in-person convention for this summer.
If you've been paying attention to the presidential elections, by now two things are indisputable:
1. Black communities in Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia are in large part, responsible for a Biden/Harris victory,* and
2. In the modern era, the effort to suppress the Black vote has rarely been as blatant.
From closing polling locations in Black neighborhoods to refusing to certify votes in majority Black counties, all pretense has been set aside.
The thinly veiled term "legal votes" has been hauled out and applied to majority non-white communities. At this point they may as well say "Black votes count for 3/5th of a vote.
Police brutality against Black people is what brought Black Lives Matter to international attention.