Call It What It Is...

He summoned her into his office and locked the door behind her from a button on his desk. He asked her to unbutton her blouse. She complied. He bent her over a chair and entered her from behind. She passed out and woke up with her pants off. He called his assistant to take her away. She was taken to the company nurse. The year was 2001. She was 40 years old. She worked there for another year seeing him everyday. She never uttered a word, not to him, not to anyone else, about what he did to her. It is now 2017. The company and all others who have worked with him for more than 20 years deny having any knowledge of his "misconduct".

Excuse me, but I'm pretty damn sure that his "misconduct" is called RAPE. I am positive that his "misconduct" is called rape when the perpetrator is named Jamahl, Jose', Abdullah OR COSBY even if it happened more than 40 years ago. So let's be very clear America and call it RAPE and respond in kind when the perpetrator is named MATT!

That was one of the last stories I heard on the boob tube before going to bed last night. It disturbed my sleep as I grappled with the notion that America has a REAL problem the depth of which I am thankful to have never experienced, the depth of which I never could have imagined; the depth of which has only begun to reveal itself...

This news disturbed my sleep as my mind drifted to the trauma of my ancestral fore-mothers who were raped at will much more brutally and viciously than what we are hearing about now... Wasn't she a woman too? Maybe, just maybe, if we had regarded her human, not chattel, and called it rape then, we would know 400+ years later that it is rape now.. I'm Just Thinkin'...

As these stories continue to unfold and become more and more outrageous with every passing day, it is abundantly clear that America has REAL problems and it is so much deeper than sexual harassment. Call it what it is...

So Tell Me Again; What Did Cosby Do?

So this morning I awake to yet another revelation about yet another perverted male celebrity, nothing new about that. Seems an almost daily "news flash". I can't help wondering where were all these empowered and/or outraged women during the public flogging of Bill Cosby whose new trial is just down the road? Did any of the newly accused or current victims speak ill of or jump on the Cosby condemnation, banish him from life, bandwagon while keeping quiet about their own experience? And are we really to believe that perversion has been this rampant in Hollywood and NO ONE knew who or where the pervs' were? Really? That just seems outside the realm of possible to me...


It did not seem possible to me that Cosby, a Black man, was running around Hollywood doing his deeds and no one knew and/or felt empowered to report him. No one? Nor does it seem possible to me that Hollywood now or in the past was so infested and no one knew. Not anyone? That is not how the universe works... If anything, this subculture was silently accepted, and I dare say protected, as part of the subculture that is probably not unique to only Hollywood.


No one can convince me that most people did not know who and where the pervs were. My guess is that they were talked about in whispers, avoided, others were warned about them, and sadly Hollywood was complicit in their existence or flourishing as them and their behavior was accepted as a dirty little, but not so secret, secret in Hollywood. Apparently being groped, molested or even raped was accepted as SOP by many who want to play in Hollywood. Call it a sad reality...


People were angry about my refusal to follow the public lead and hate on Cosby. Some even stopped speaking to and unfriended me on Facebook. I'm alright... Never did I defend what he was accused of because seemingly unlike most Americans, I was not in the room with Cosby and any of these women. I don't know what happened 40, 50 or even 10 years ago. What I do know however and have always known and advocated for, was that the allegations made against Cosby were not unique to him. I said repeatedly that if we were going to condemn and bury him then condemn and get the shovel out for others because he had a helluva' lot of company. I refused to support a double standard.


There was never any question to me that that which was being alleged against Cosby was not unique to Cosby. Not possible. He is part of a larger culture and certainly a product of a different time and era, where like it or not, what he was accused of was not so unusual. Does that make it right? Hell no. Does it make it hypocritical as hell to crucify him when we all KNEW that he had plenty of company. Hell yeah!


So as women, and now male victims too, amazingly seem to be finding the voice they were not inspired to find when the ish' was hitting the fan about Cosby, I fully expect to wake up tomorrow to yet another revelation about the down fall of yet another celebrity who we all love and adore today... Another sad reality...

Comforting Lies v. Unpleasant Truths

Saw this photo on Twitter this morning as I listen to the coverage of the horrific church shooting in TX on yesterday. I am wondering when America is going to stop telling herself "comforting lies" about gun violence in America and deal with the "unpleasant truth" that just as she diagnoses that there is a problem with "Black on Black" crime, inner city gang violence, "terrorist" Muslims here and abroad and such, she has an even greater problem with her refusal to address/control/acknowledge angry White guys obsessed with their guns who have moved on from killing innocent people in schools and places of employment to now shooting each other in the most sacred of places; churches and country western concerts... Call it terrorism...

A terrorist who goes to a country western concert or a country church in rural White America, ain't going there with the intention to terrorize and kill Black and Brown folks. How about we use the mindless catch phrase so conveniently used to sum up, while ignoring crime in other communities and just call it White on White crime? How about we continue to condemn and sensationalize crime in other communities and pretend that gun violence in White communitie

s isn't really happening or will just go away, you know like White folks on heroin and other drugs wasn't really happening and just went away... How's that working for ya'?

America, whose media, judicial, legislative, education, police systems and the like are so quick and have ready diagnoses for everyone else, has none for her own? Are they really wasting tax dollars to dissect the brain of the Las Vegas shooter? Really? Gimme' A Break! Come on America! Deal with YOUR shit! The truth shall set you free...

So, so sad. Sincere condolences to the Families of the victims of senseless crime in ALL communities...

On Donna Brazile: I Think I Get It...

While the timing is undoubtedly horrible in light of pending elections on Tuesday and on the heels of long awaited indictments in the trump/Russia fiasco, I think I get why Donna Brazile penned her memoir. There is something to be said about Blacks in power, especially Black Women. No matter how fancy our title, whatever our pedigree, abundance of degrees, experience or our position of authority, one is left to question is our power as Black executives real or imagined, respected or tolerated, legitimate or for show and if we exert our authority, are there consequences?

I am guessing that a party which has documented complaints of feeling taken for granted and disrespected from what is likely their largest constituent base, Black voters, specifically Black Women, without whom no Democrat can win a national election, that a Black woman at the top of that party might have caught hell along the way, even while at the top. It is also quite likely that Ms. Brazile may just have had her fill and took to the keyboard out of despair or frustration. I'm Just Guessing...

Donna Brazile is a well known and respected Black woman political strategist who has been an active and loyal Democrat for decades. She is celebrated as a woman who has worked her way up the ladder and held some very prestigious positions along the way. She is noted for having worked on every presidential campaign between 1976 and 2000 when she became the first Black American woman to manage a presidential campaign for a major political party. Who will ever forget Al Gore and the infamous hanging chads (2000)? So it seems fair to assume that she knows her stuff, who are the key players and how the Democratic game of politics is played. It seems safe to assume too that she knows where the proverbial bodies lie and that she has paid her dues.

There are two things however, that I know for sure; (1) the Democratic party is under fire by Black [women] voters and (2) it ain't no bed of roses for most Black folks in the work place, especially Black women but specifically, Blacks in leadership positions. Given that Ms. Brazile meets both of these parameters, it seems pretty credible that her experience as a Black Woman In Charge (BWIC) was not much different than that of other Blacks who similarly hold positions of authority in their place of employment where they too are a minority in charge. Ms. Brazile faced the double whammy in that she is Black and female.

While nothing about Ms. Brazile suggests that she can't handle herself, I imagine that she, like other BWIC's in the workplace, over the years, has probably seen or questioned seemingly unfair practices that happened to other minorities and women in the work place. Sometimes she might have held her tongue, at least publicly, for the sake of the party, so not to be labeled [an angry Black woman], to get along, because..., because..., because..., that's what we do. We take the high road, vent amongst ourselves and usually internalize our displeasure for what might be a variety of reasons, mostly to keep our positions or at least a steady pay check, sometimes to avoid the assignment of a stereotype or simply to be seen as a team player. There are a myriad of reasons but working while Black can be a tightrope walk for sure.

In May 2017 Black women penned an open letter to the head of the DNC, Tom Perez,  offering
specifics to support being neglected and/or unappreciated by a party to which we are staunchly loyal. Black women overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party for  both elections of President Obama, and again we showed up for the 2016 presidential election voting for Hillary Clinton to the tune of 94%; a margin greater than any other constituent group. It does not seem therefore, such a leap to surmise that if Black female voters are having these feelings of rejection and despair from the Democrats as an organization, then it is likely that the BWIC is also feeling or being similarly disrespected or marginalized, despite her position of power at the top. Democrats as an employer are part of the larger society, therefore plagued with systemic issues indistinguishable from that of the larger society and/or other employers. Donna was not immune.

I have not yet read the soon to be released book, Hacks, The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House, but I have pre-ordered a copy and have read excerpts from various sources on the internet. From reading the excerpts, I suspect that Ms. Brazile in her most recent position with the DNC did not feel respected as a woman of authority, a woman of color, nor perhaps as a woman of age or maybe just as a woman. She describes a situation in which she proclaims to three senior male staffers, that she is not "Patsey the Slave", a voiceless, brutally tortured female character in the hit movie, 12 Years a Slave. She speaks of a young man of 30 seemingly tolerating, disrespecting and dismissing her as a "senile old auntie" interested only in his rise to the top. Sadly, this was true too of and maybe reinforced during the Obama campaigns. Ms. Brazile offers descriptive narrative of how she felt when a White female subordinate, who took to Twitter to defend herself, openly challenged her authority. She tells her reader that it was not until February, four months after close of the election, when she finally heard from Hillary Clinton, the woman for whom she has presumably just worked to get elected.This is akin to the boss who needed to have called the employee long before then to say something...

Often when I see Blacks in positions where they can effectuate change yet I fail to see change, I ponder what is the problem. Is it is because when we [Blacks] have these positions of "power" we are mere figureheads or window dressings of diversity, expected to tow the line, know "our place" and who in actuality have no real power? Or is the problem that often we aren't comfortable or don't feel supported enough in our position of power to confidently exert our newfound authority to effectuate change and if so, why is that? What is the message that has been sent to those who drink the Kool-aid and who take their right to assume and exert authority seriously? How many are driven, as I suspect was Ms. Brazile when this time she stepped up to save the party and fill the shoes of her failed White female predecessor, to step outside the box and make their displeasure heard, much less memorialize it?

Ms. Brazile has been a party loyalist and for that she is due our consideration. If my theory is correct, and like, Fannie Lou Hamer, she just got 'sick and tired of being sick tired', who among us does not recall a time when we have felt disrespected and dis-empowered in the work place? She is catching hell right now in the sphere of public opinion, largely because of the timing of her release. I get that too. She, however, can handle it and will soon be on tour promoting her book and making her case. I support and will tune in to hear because she has earned and deserves as much. I will not join ranks and simply on queue and without question, throw her under the bus at the beckoning of those who prefer that she not speak her truth, air our dirty laundry, or tell our secrets; not now or ever. Nor will I respond to the beckoning of those who prefer that she not hold a mirror to the face of the "liberal and progressive" party that seemingly does not hear Black women nor want to see it's own reflection. If the Dems need to do some soul searching or housecleaning, now is as good a time as any. Can they hear us now? I'm Just Wonderin'... 

Ms. Brazile has been in the game and respected for far too long to be so easily dismissed. Nothing about her record suggests that she would do anything deliberate to derail or harm the party and certainly nothing to prolong trump's occupation of the white house. I plan to listen to what she has to say because I think I get it. I urge those who share any part of her experience or who know what I presume to be her truth, to hear her out because you too, just might get it...