The Goddess Professor Speaks

It's also why they erase the ugly parts of their own histories--like 5$ Indians. In Fall 2020 (right before THE pandemic school year started), I attended a virtual session titled The Legacy of Historical Trauma: A Discussion of the Black and Native American Existence, Identity, and Moves Forward to Healing . It was SUCH an enriching, rewarding, spiritual experience for me. I listened to the panelists (most of whom are Black and Indigenous or were raised in Black/Indigenous households OR are raising Black-Indigenous relatives) speak of the intersecting identities and the double oppressions of being both Black and Indigenous and the acknowledgment of anti-Blackness handed down from our collective oppressors and often internalized and laterally expressed in Indigenous communities, really in both communities. The anti-Blackness being weaponized and stripped from Indigenous Peoples by the dominant culture, to the point that Black-Indigenous people would need to deny their Blackness in ...

As I read " The Novel Frugality " in Vox last night, I couldn't help but think that this "new frugality due to corona" is in large part only experienced by people who have never had to struggle in their lives--apart from maybe Ramen-fueled college years. I'll be perfectly honest, my first thought was "awww, look. Wealthy folks and/or wypipo are joining the rest of the world and being less wasteful. That's cute." People who either grew up struggling or had parents who grew up struggling, and thereby maintained those struggling-life habits, and passed those habits on likely already had habits that prepared us for this. My parents grew up struggling and passed on those habits. My dad lived as a sharecropping family for a brief time as a child. (Then they got the fuck on down because they weren't dumb and no, just fucking no!) One of the most mind-blowing stories I've never forgotten from my dad was that when he was a kid, he and 3 siblin...

The post below was written in 2015, but never posted. (Not sure why.) Goodness, has the world changed in those 4 years. Now, our "president"--45--and EVEN more police brutality and racial bullshit situations have forced us to talk about what we have avoided for far too long. The below post represented a turning point for me in what topics I use for class. I'm glad I made that turn. I now actively work to decolonize the classroom and reiterate bell hooks' call to use transgressive teaching. Join me. From https://www.flickr.com/photos/collegelibrary/10859112445 For the first time in too many years to count, I've decided to use articles in my classes that openly discuss race. I purposely selected " The Topics Dystopian Films Won't Touch " by Imran Siddiquee and a response to that article titled " Why The Hunger Games  Is about Racism " by Alissa Wilkinson because both articles focused on a book and film series that most students nowadays...

The stage after the assassination. The circles are bullet holes. Fifty years ago today, Brother Minister Malcolm X stood before a crowded room in the Audubon Theatre and Ballroom to speak. Some time after he began speaking, someone yelled, "Nigger, get your hand out my pocket." A ruckus began, the bodyguards moved towards the commotion and in the distraction and confusion, several assassins approached the podium and shot down Brother Minister Malcolm X. In my plans to blog about lesser known Black Americans and their contributions, Malcolm X doesn't quite fit squarely into that category. He's well known. People know his name even if they aren't really sure what he stood for. There's a movie about his life. He's often held up in contrast to Dr. Martin L. King. Although he's not considered a "safe negro" like the other blacks who are discussed ad naseum year after year in attempts to "honor" February and Black History Month, h...

Recently, I read an article that claimed that Alberta King (Dr. Martin Luther King's mother) was assassinated too. She was shot by a mentally unstable person while playing the organ at her church. While this information is incorrect (yes, she was murdered but not assassinated), the larger point of the article was that despite the author's parents purposely ensuring that he was well acquainted with Black Historical figures, by and large, the activists were men and the women were mostly artists--writers, poets, playwrights, singers, etc. In working on this series of Remember the Past posts, I'm recalling all sorts of history lessons I was fortunate to receive throughout my youth. As I read that article, I realized that my lessons were not painted in that way so that the activists and fighters were mostly men and the women were in essence, the artsy supporting roles. From age 6 until 15 (with a few years absence), I was fortunate enough to participate in a play at my church...

Family illnesses and life falling down around me has delayed my posts. Goodness have I got to catch up!  In the meantime, allow this next Remember the Past post to introduce you to Henrietta Lacks: The Unwitting Mother of Immortal Cells Thanks to efforts of writers, some  scientists, some  doctors, and Mrs. Lacks family after  they found out, Henrietta Lacks now receives the proper acknowledgement that she deserves. In life , Lacks was sadly not much different from other people of her era--lots of siblings, married young, produced lots of babies, died of illness at a young age. However, in death , although completely unknown to her family for TWENTY years after her death, Lacks' cells (taken from her without her knowledge or permission by George Otto Gey) would become the first human immortal cell line for medical research: HeLa Cells. Lacks grew up in the shadows of slavery in Virginia. After her mother died in 1924, her father parceled Lacks and h...

It is becoming painfully obvious to anyone paying attention to the full scope of things that this country is NOT equal under the law. People of Color do not have equal protection under the law (we never have), we do not receive equal treatment in the courts, and we damn sure don't receive equal treatment by all cops. Laws do not apply fairly to everyone and now, citizens are taking it upon themselves to help  police with their jobs and that's only making things worse. Open and Concealed Carry Laws have never been applied equally. On May 2, 1967, the Black Panther Party walked into the State Capitol building in California carrying loaded guns . This was completely legal. At that time, California was an open carry state. The Black Panthers were merely exercising their Second Amendment Rights (as we have so frequently heard from groups of armed men and women all across the country in recent years). Their actions, prompted CA assemblyman Don Mulford to draft the Mulford Act , w...

Yesterday, I took Little Dude to the park before picking up Baby Dude from day care. I was hoping for a day in the park for the two of us to have a mom and son day. Play on the swings together, chase each other, laugh, etc. (I love both my little dudes, but it's so important to show each one of them their own attention as much as possible.) When we arrived, there were already a few kids there, which of course meant he'd want to play with them, and I'd be relegated to watching him and pushing him on the swings. I was cool with it as long as he was happy. He happily went to the slides/play set; I hung back a bit and let him do his thing. The other kids were on the swings, but as soon as they saw him, they called out to him and asked his name. He replied, and they started to come over.  I stepped back further to merely watch their interactions. What I witnessed for the next 20 or so minutes gave me thousands of thoughts and took me on a roller coaster of emotions. There we...

As a black female and mother of two young black males, I can’t help but watch what’s unfolding in Ferguson since the Michael Brown shooting on Aug. 9.  This shooting death went from an event that sadly, most people of color are no longer shocked by to a situation of unrest as people protest, police over-react to attempt to control crowds, journalists are arrested, citizens are tear-gassed, people (believed to be outsiders) loot and agitate, and AG Eric Holder arrives. We’re horrified that these things keep happening and nothing ever seems to change.  There are more names of black males (and females) beaten and/or killed by police in the last several years than anyone could remember or count.  But their families remember.   And though we can’t remember each name, we know that they happened and again, sadly, we’re no longer surprised. The protests, occasional looting, overly excessive response by the police, and overall unrest in Ferguson following the shoot...