by Tyson Amir
I can't imagine what Bartlett felt watching his wife and nine-year-old son be shipped off. I can't imagine what Rowena felt knowing that her husband could not help protect her from their slave master, and she could not do anything to protect herself and son from being sold. I don't want that to come across as chauvinistic, as if a woman is dependent on a man to protect her. Also, I'm not espousing "traditional" relationship views; if you're black the system of racism doesn't care if your union is hetero or same-sex, all are subjected to the same oppression. That is precisely why, regardless of how the relationship is constructed, a couple works together to protect their union, and both partners have to do their part for the safety and security of that union.
The institution of slavery made it so a husband and wife could not legally fight for one another. Knowing this, what happens to the black family that has had all of that stolen from them multiple times? Again, I am not espousing traditional Western male-female roles. I am not saying that the man has a certain place, and the woman has her place following the man. The fact of the matter is black men and women were allies in the fight against the systemic racist abuse they faced on a daily basis. They came into it together and had to rely on each other to survive. Surviving leaves scars, and one of those scars is the realization that it is hard to have faith and confidence in your ally when he or she cannot protect you. This is a very real component at the heart of black male and female relations and the black family in America.
The challenge of loving another when you're broken daily by your surroundings is virtually insurmountable. The conversation has to be raw and open if you are addressing that historical legacy. In the piece, I wanted to bring attention to the roles that black women find themselves in just like I talked about black men and their roles in the poem “Out.” Men and women both have artificially constructed roles that have been assigned to them by society. Just like the young black men smoothly fall into their roles, black women began to do the same. Many of the women I've come across are still lost somewhere in their role. Just like the roles that are scripted for black boys are filled with lies, the roles of black women are equally fabricated on foundations of falsehoods. Those roles have to be challenged and dismantled. If not, then a people who do not have our best interest in mind are bombarding us with sickened messages as to who we are to be. And their grotesque ill-informed "truth" is so very far from the truth that we know of ourselves.
As I mentioned before, black women have always been at the heart of the struggle. The story of black women is not all suffering at the hands of America and black society. Their successes are not confined only to domestic duties. We can look at slavery days and arguably the most famous and directly effective figure from that time is a woman, Harriet Tubman. Tubman perfected her usage of the network of the Underground Railroad to help blacks find their way to freedom. Everyone involved in the operation was putting something at risk, but none more than the actual conductor in the field driving the metaphoric train to freedom. Tubman risked her life more than any other conductor on the Railroad and is famously quoted as saying, "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." She risked life and limb hundreds of times to bring freedom by force to her people. Others in her day talked about diplomatic and political remedies to freedom; Tubman manifested it for her people by any means necessary. Her male historical counterparts are names like Benjamin Banneker, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Fredrick Douglass, but arguably her example is unparalleled by all that they contributed. A woman unconquered by anyone and anything.
Post-slavery days we have more women who stand out. We have women like “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, who according to legend broke more noses than any other person in central Montana. She was a woman in a man's world but thrived in that world. And not only a woman in a man's world, she was a black woman in a white man's world. Her reputation and character was so respected that she openly defied segregation policies in the city where she lived, and nobody did anything about it. She became the first female U.S. mail carrier in her region and never missed a single package. Stagecoach was bad.
These are not isolated instances. We can go through the history and continue to highlight examples of black women overcoming the strictures of two societies to become successful in their own right. Mary McLeod Bethune and the Bethune-Cookman schools, Madam C.J. Walker and her industrial success, and Ida B. Wells and her fight for black rights and women's rights. The NAACP had women in positions of leadership and as the legal minds behind various initiatives waged by the organization. We know the example of Rosa Parks and her role in what eventually became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. And some historians mention how Dr. King was pushed to become involved in the civil rights movement by Coretta, and without Coretta, King's role in the movement would not have been possible. Women have been at the forefront of the vanguard all along.
In historical reflection and retelling, the black liberation movements become very patriarchal, but none of it was at all possible without the strength and support of black women. We remember our Dr. Kings and Malcolms and organizations like SCLC and SNCC, the Nation of Islam, as well as other groups that contributed to the struggle, but at the backbone of all those groups and movements you found women to be the primary supporters and many times part of the leadership. Immediately following the civil rights movement, you find women in leadership positions all throughout the black power movement. A woman I am blessed to know and consider a mentor, Elaine Brown, became the Chairperson of the Black Panther Party in 1974, instantly making her the leader of the most revolutionary organization in American history. Under her leadership the party flourished and in that position she was arguably the baddest and most powerful black person in America. And as she's told me on several occasions, she's still bad. At one point in time, a significant portion of the leadership of the Black Panther Party were women. Other important figures from that era were Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Fannie Lou Hamer, Erika Huggins, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Sis, Clara Muhammad, and Shirley Chisholm. Since day one, women have always been involved in, and at the forefront of every aspect of black resistance.
The power exemplified by the previous examples is an essential aspect of the narrative of the black woman in America. We hold to that example and honor it. That awesome power is born out of the fact that they have been given the shortest end of the stick and are still able to create miracles everyday with what they have been given. This is no easy task, and the pain and trauma from finding ways to survive this hellish reality are real. This fight waged by the black woman has led to another stereotype of the "strong black woman." It is used in a way to ignore her pain and suffering because she can handle it. In other words, no need to support or comfort her because she can deal with it on her own. No one is an island; we all need love and support.
If society was different, if it gave black women equal access to the spoils of America, we would be able to celebrate the minds, accomplishments, inventions, and innovations birthed by black women much more than we are able to do now. But the multiple layers of oppression are thick and weighted heavily across the backs of black women. Society fails to see and respect the intellectual gifts of black women and instead shuns the majority of their creative ability, unless it is tied to a man's sperm. But the resounding truth is women are powerful and valuable with or without men. They do not need a man to validate their greatness. Women have been doing great things throughout their existence, and they will continue to do so. It's an insult to try to confine their greatness to their "beauty" or their reproductive ability.
“Letter to Johnetta” attempts to bring light to the realities of the women I've met in jails, prisons, and on the streets of the Bay Area. It is so easy to only highlight beauty because from a patriarchal lens that is what men want to see women as. My teaching has afforded me the opportunity to learn from the lives of the women I meet. I wanted this poem to reflect the very real connections I've established wit
h my students. I wanted them to see that I see them and convey to them the reality of our shared struggles. Like the poems “Out” and “The Rose,” there's a similar formula to the way the poem is written. First, it's written to grab the attention of its intended audience. I try to create a context that is familiar to draw the listener in. Then I begin to introduce problems that the character in the poem is facing and try to show love and support for the intended audience. Finally, I try to show that the only way to solve our problems is together, and that I'm here to do my part to help us win.
I feel “Letter to Johnetta” is an important poem because there are a number of songs and poems about the black "queens," Nubian sisters, and well-to-do more "socially adjusted" women, praising them for who they are. On the contrary, there are very few songs and poems about women who are not classified as such, done in a manner that isn't about calling them out by their name. It's a horrendous dichotomy of “you're either a queen or a bitch.” You're the mother of civilization or ratchet. That's what happens when men are allowed to dictate the story; women become reduced to a false binary of what men like and don't like.
“Letter to Johnetta” is written outside of that dichotomy. It is my attempt, firstly, at an honest message filled with love and concern for the plight of black women, and secondly, the connection between black men and women. Black women have been discarded by society. This poem was to say that black women matter, as well as to address the poisoned messages that are fed to us on a daily basis to distract us from who we truly are. The poem also includes a subject that I feel isn't really discussed openly enough, and that is the often turbulent relationship between black woman and black man. I address the deliberate steps taken by this society to drive wedges between black men and women. Again, not saying that a woman has value only in relation to a man. Yet and still, we both face similar institutional discriminatory treatment by this society, and we will have to work together as partners to save ourselves. Although women shine independently, we are inextricably connected because we are the only ones left who are concerned about our survival, and together we are stronger in fighting for our livelihood.
The piece finishes with appeals to understand the mind-control programming directed at women and the historical traumas that have prevented black women from being their authentic selves. Both black women and men have to shed the roles imposed upon us by a society that does not care for our health and well-being. It is up to us to rectify our condition in this society. Black women are extremely important because they have been the lifeblood of every major movement toward black liberation in America. There is no black liberation without the liberation of black women. We need all black women and men to work together with equality and justice if we are serious about revolutionary change in our world. This is the heart of “Letter to Johnetta.” May the words serve as inspiration and a benefit to our sisters and brothers. May we both find our way together to our true selves and may we struggle proudly until we make our way OUT.
Material of Martyrs (2015)
I am made from the material of martyrs
hewn in the hollows of vessels whose hulls housed
the most horrific horrors history has known.
Fashioned in a furnace
fueled by the fires of hatred and fear
I emerge mangled and misshapen
the merciless hands of manufacturers
attempt to molest my essence
maneuvering my body in multiple directions
Am I not man and brother
Am I not flesh and bone
Their eye is incapable of envisioning that reality
my truth is engulfed,
superimposed are their mental projections
by-products of their fantasy and fancy
They cannot see
that I too
am blessed By the One,
adorned in a bold, brilliant
and beautiful brocaded dark cloth,
eerily iridescent
incandescent and majestic
Their eyes marvel
then their envy intervenes
their hearts conspire jealousy,
their souls grow deficient and desperate
Their desire is to own the economy of me
incarcerate those of this ilk.
Appropriate our creations
for the expressed purposes
of commodity and control
And they believe their victory is nigh
What they don't know is
intricately woven into the fabrics of my robes
are rebellion and resistance.
Yeah, these wears are wrought with revolution
Regalia is ripe with the royal hues of our royal ancestors
My garments are replete with struggle and survival
Bespoke apparel
customized by the knowledge and wisdom
amplified by
shotgun shells flying from barrels in the Audubon.
No brand names
Just black names
etched in each strand of cotton,
linen,
silk,
polyester,
and rayon
I have on.
I wear Addie Mae Collins,
Denise McNair,
Carole Robertson,
Cynthia Wesley,
Medgar Evers
and Trayvon
I'm covered in some Martin King,
Fred Hampton,
Fred Gray
Emmett Till,
Sandra Bland
I'm clad in that plaid pattern
ropes make on flesh
when tied around necks
as nooses
This is not some fashion week exclusive
This is bruises and blood,
bullets and billy clubs,
burning crosses,
ballot boxes,
brutality making us into
burnt offerings at the altar.
If you look here, my man, you'll see
This ain't swag
This is sophistication
stitched through generations
it's deep in the lines and seams
and my kind knows the reality
of what every thread means.
You can't buy that
you can't try that
it's not off the rack
or couture
this is that authentic black culture
And I've found this cut and fit
is tailored to my size
ain't no other suit for me to try
nor would I want to try
and this is why I make this look so good
because I wear this with pride.
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Reflections of a Black Boy
What does it mean to be black in America?
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” - Article I Section II US Constitution
This is the first official answer to the question of what it means to be black in constitutional America. Three-fifths of all other persons. Not to be counted or considered a full human being, to be considered by law 3/5ths or 60% of a human being.
__________________________________________________________________________
The catastrophe in our existence is that the exploitation and extermination of life has been for one main reason, capitalistic greed. It's a greed for power, money, property, and other forms of wealth for the benefit of a select few and the slight but significant elevated status of middle- and lower-class whites. That greed has manifested itself in many ways and spawned numerous justifications, theories, and philosophies to support it, but the genetic esse
nce to the social underpinning of our plight is capitalistic greed.
We know the motto of the Spanish conquistadors was for “Gold, God, and Glory.” Once they laid their false claims to lands, they worked hard to establish colonies to extract wealth from the land by any means necessary. In the process, they almost completely obliterated all indigenous populations they encountered. Other European countries soon followed and began to emulate their example. It didn't matter whether the labor came from indigenous natives, other poor Europeans, or Africans. Eventually, for the sake of efficiency, shrewd business minds concluded it would be more advantageous if the labor was to be provided on plantations in South America, the Caribbean, and North America by Africans.
Free labor is great for greedy countries, economies, and corporations. The first major undertaking in the operation of colonial empire building was acquiring large swaths of land that could be utilized for resource purposes. To accomplish this, the indigenous people all throughout the Americas were systematically killed off and displaced from their lands in the pursuit of wealth and expansion of empire. In the example of the United States, we broke every treaty ever made with the indigenous nations because the lust for wealth was greater than honoring agreements made with innocent people. The American machine was inventive in all the ways it justified the theft and slaughter necessary to acquire indigenous lands. The justifications were necessary to salve the conscience and quiet the guilt rising in the soul over the barbarism and greed.
