feminist blogs

I guess attention, action and support are finite in Black community. No groundswell of support for these young Black lesbians. Heaven forbid we support Black lesbians.

Free the Newark (Black) Lesbian 4

Hi,
After I sent out the tea party invitations, I started making contact with some blogging wimmin I want to continue engaging with on the regular. The only problem is that my blogger layout page is malfunctioning. I'm going to be communicating with them about doing a fix for this. In the meantime I have a request. If you're a politically radical lefty/feminist/mama/anarchist/queer/African diasporic/poc or some fascinating combination thereof and you'd like to exchange links with me, please leave me a note here with the addy of your blog, if I haven't already been to visit, and when I figure out what's up with my layout, I will add your blog to my sidebar.

Thanks.

if what you're reading here grips you, holds you, fascinates you, provokes you, emboldens you, pushes you, galvanizes you, discomfits you, tickles you, enrages you so much that you find yourself returning again and again...then link me.

via Shakesville

Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Democratic Primary News Race Gender Class Kentucky Oregon Sexist News Feminist Politics

More than a year ago, in response to Joe Biden’s racial miscue at the start of the Democratic primary campaign, I discussed how most white Americans have no idea how to talk about race. Little did I know, though, that ignorance and naivete about race wouldn’t prevent a lot of white people in the media from [...]

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Maybe we should just be glad he doesn’t call women bitches and hos, like his buddy Jay-Z.

(via Corrente)

Edwards endorses Obama. Why today? To distract attention from Obama’s humiliating defeat in West Virginia, of course. Anything to keep people from noticing that Hillary is winning.

From the endorsement:

"Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC is proud to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president. Sen. Obama has been a strong advocate for a woman's right to choose throughout his career in public office. He steadfastly supports and defends a woman's right to make the most personal, private decisions regarding her reproductive health without interference from government or politicians.

"Sen. Obama has been a leader on this issue in the United States Senate. Since joining the Senate in 2005, he has worked to unite Americans on both side of this debate behind commonsense, common-ground ways to prevent unintended pregnancy. Sen. Obama supports legislation to provide our teens with comprehensive sex education, prevent pharmacies from denying women access to their legal birth-control prescriptions, and increase access to family-planning services.

Ellen Malcolm of EMILY's List was not pleased. She released the following statement today:

"I think it is tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton - who held up the nomination of a FDA commissioner in order to force approval of Plan B and who spoke so eloquently during the Supreme Court nomination about the importance of protecting Roe vs. Wade - to not give her the courtesy to finish the final three weeks of the primary process. It certainly must be disconcerting for elected leaders who stand up for reproductive rights and expect the choice community will stand with them."

Though Malcolm has been hitting this theme pretty hard lately, I have a hard time seeing NARAL's endorsement as a betrayal. It looks to me like they simply came to terms with the delegate count.

NARAL president Nancy Keenan took pains to note Clinton's excellent record on choice:

"Americans have been fortunate to have two fully pro-choice candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination. But only one can go forward to the general election. It is truly historic for us to have these two outstanding candidates in the race."

Unlike EMILY's List, NARAL has no stated commitment to supporting female pro-choice politicians. As Keenan says, Clinton and Obama both have phenomenal records on this issue. If NARAL truly believed Obama to be the superior candidate on choice, they could have made this endorsement months ago. (Such a move would have been far more damaging to Clinton.) I do have to ask, though, why NARAL chose to endorse now rather than, say, after one of the candidate has officially dropped out?

I wonder if NARAL is going to lose donor support over this move. I've gotta believe that a lot of NARAL's core donors are Clinton supporters. Also, is this a bad move in general because it's likely to be spun, in the media, as a "catfight" between pro-choice organizations? Other groups, such as the National Women's Political Caucus, have chastised NARAL's endorsement because they "believe that this announcement at this time will divide the choice community at a time when we need to stand united." Similar themes are popping up in this comment thread over at Blog for Choice.

Thoughts, y'all? (Please, please keep it civil. Both Clinton and Obama supporters are participants in this blog community. Be kind.)

In case you missed it, Violet Socks over at Reclusive Leftist said it best:

Why I will not vote for Obama even if he’s the nominee — and why you shouldn’t either:

[T]he Obamabots don’t seem to understand. And I know why: it’s because they don’t take sexism seriously. When women say we will not reward misogyny, we’re laughed off. The Obamabots just tell more jokes and hurl more insults and write more crass articles about how the little lay-dees have their little pan-tees in a twist.

The only “ism” the Obamabots take seriously is racism. So I’m going to try to explain the situation in terms they’ll understand, using a racial analogy.

Imagine this scenario:
The shoe is on the other foot, and Obama, not Hillary, is the punching bag of the media — a media that is blatantly and unapologetically racist. And I do mean blatant. Jokes every night on the cable news shows about Obama’s hair and his fondness for fried chicken. Pundits laughing about what a problem uppity Negroes are.

Across the country, racists openly ridicule Obama and his candidacy. In mainstream stores there are gag gifts playing on racist themes: maybe a (water)Melon Baller with Obama’s head on the handle, maybe a Barack Obama Shoeshine Set — you get the picture. 501c groups invoke the most grotesque racist slurs with their advertising; T-shirts say “Quit Running for President and Shine My Shoes!” Anybody who protests is branded a fool and a spoilsport. . .

Hillary goes out of her way to say how much she admires and respects those Republicans who don’t think African-Americans should have the right to vote. She says judges with a record of opposing voting rights are good candidates for the nation’s benches — even the Supreme Court. . . And the Democratic Party goes along with all this, pushing Hillary as the nominee, ignoring the anger of African-American voters, smugly assuming that they’ll “come back to the fold” by November. After all, say the pundits and the Blogger Boyz, where else are they going to go? The Republicans are even worse.

If Barack Obama and his supporters become the new Democratic party, then the Democratic party will no longer be the party of women’s rights. . .All the sexism of this campaign will be rewarded instead of repudiated. And that Democratic party will not deserve my vote.

Go on, Democrats, try to get elected without me. . . . read more

Chris Matthews: How Do You Get those Visceral Women to Vote for Obama? (Video)
West Virginia: 59% of Hillary Voters Will NOT Vote for Obama
Mad as Hell About the Misogyny & the Anti-Feminist Rage Against Hillary (Video)
Why there Are So Few Women in American Politics: The Misogyny (Video)

Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Democratic Primary News Race Gender Class West Virginia Kentucky Oregon Media Bias Sexist News Feminist Backlash Misogyny Politics

Monica Wade was born and raised in Oakland, CA. She is now the Office Manager of Justice Now and is also the founder and director of Tender Care, transitional housing for those who need and want to be in a safe and healthy environment. She was incarcerated for 10 years of her life and knows what goes on behind prison walls and the torture and pain people go through.

Once a person is released, then what? What if they’ve been there 25 years? Then what? Children are all up and grown; rest of the family is dead or married. Where do they go? And how do they support themselves?

Once you’re incarcerated and you get out, things change. The people that you know have changed. The job fields have changed. So you’re dealing with all these changes all around, and you, personally, are changed.

You have to have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. You have to be able to take care of yourself. When you’re starting all over from scratch, that takes money. It costs to live.

And that’s where transitional housing comes in. I started Tender Care as support for people coming back to their community. “Community-based” jails and prisons are not the answer. The answer is to provide people with what they are lacking, whether it be a place to stay, a skill, or just a caring hand.
I’ve been around re-entry for over 40 years of my life. I can tell my clients, “I’ve been in your shoes before”. But we need more support for transitional housing that is community-run. All the programs that we offer at Tender Care are by organizations run by ex -felons that have made a difference in the community. We have our own solutions.

The dominant narratives of this election year have nothing to do with Ralph Nader — and most Democrats are pretty darn happy about that .  We’re more concerned about race/gender, Barack/Hillary and Bush/McCain stories.  The only time we’ll hear about radical leftist politicians will be when the Democrats are reminding us that Barack Obama isn’t one of [...]

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