TAKE IT ALL IN, YOU WILL SEE YOURSELF AT LEAST ONCE .....

>>
>>The Death of the Black Woman
>>
>>
>>While struggling with the reality of being a human
>>instead of a myth, the strong black woman passed away.
>>
>>Medical sources say she died of natural causes, but
>>those who knew her know she died from being silent when she should
>
>>have been screaming, smiling when she should have been raging, from
>>being sick and not wanting anyone to know because her pain might
>>inconvenience them.
>>
>>She died from an overdose of other people clinging to
>>her when she didn't even have energy for herself.
>>
>>She died from loving men who didn't love themselves
>>and could only offer her a crippled reflection.
>>
>>She died from raising children alone.
>>
>>She died from the lies her grandmother told her mother
>>and her mother told her about life, men &racism.
>>
>>She died from being sexually abused as a child and
>>having to take that truth everywhere she went every day
>>of her life, exchanging the humiliation for guilt and back again.
>>
>>She died from asphyxiation, coughing up blood from
>>secrets she kept trying to burn away instead of allowing herself
>>the kind of nervous breakdown she was entitled to, but only white
>>girls could afford.
>>
>>She died from being responsible, because she was the
>>last rung on the ladder and there was no one under her she could
>>dump on.
>>
>>The strong black woman is dead.
>>
>>She died from being a mother at 15 and a grandmother
>>at 30 and an ancestor at 45.
>>
>>She died from being dragged down and sat upon by
>>un-evolved women posing as sisters and friends.
>>
>>She died from tolerating Mr. Pitiful, just to have a
>>man around the house.
>>
>>She died from sacrificing herself for everybody and
>>everything when what she really wanted to do was be a
>>singer, a dancer, or some magnificent other.
>>
>>She died from lies of omission because she didn't want
>>to bring the black man down.
>>
>>She died from tributes from her counterparts who
>>should have been matching her efforts instead of
>>showering her with dead words and empty songs.
>>
>>She died from myths that would not allow her to show
>>weakness without being chastised by the lazy and hazy.
>>
>>She died from hiding her real feelings until they
>>became hard and bitter enough to invade her womb and
>>breasts like angry tumors.
>>
>>She died from always lifting something from heavy
>>boxes to refrigerators all by herself.
>>
>>The strong black woman is dead.
>>
>>She died from never being enough of what men wanted,
>>or being too much for the men she wanted.
>>
>>She died from being too black and died again for not
>>being black enough.
>>
>>She died from being misinformed about her mind, her
>>body &the extent of her royal capabilities.
>>
>>She died from knees pressed too close together because
>>respect was never part of the foreplay that was being
>>shoved at her.
>>
>>She died from loneliness in birthing rooms and
>>aloneness in abortion centers.
>>
>>She died in bathrooms with her veins busting open with
>>self-hatred and neglect.
>>
>>And sometimes when she refused to die, when she just
>>used to give in she was killed by the lethal images
>>of blonde hair, blue eyes and flat butts, being
>>rejected by the OJ.'s, the Quincy's, the Cuba's &the
>>Kobe's.
>>
>>Sometimes, she was stomped to death by racism &
>>sexism, executed by hi-tech ignorance while she
>>carried the family in her belly, the community on her
>>head, and the race on her back!
>>
>>The strong black woman is dead!
>>
>>Or is she?
>>
>>I know I'm not!


>>***Pass this on to all the strong black women that you
>>love, respect, and admire! And the black men who care.




By Trustee Audrey Jaycox