LIKE THE MOVEMENT, A BLACK WOMAN’S WORTH IS STAGNATE, BUT IT’S ALL ABOUT THAT BASS
It started with Lauryn Hill turning 40. I mean man, where has time flown since 1998 and Doo-Wop was that thing? People say we as black women continue to make strides in the world, and I agree we do totally ROCK! We have a Black First Lady who has a mean style game and the intelligence that aligns, if not surpasses that of her European counterparts. We have our young, gifted and Black millennial activists who keeps a strong Black woman in the forefront of the fight for social justice bringing attention to the issues and matters that matter to us! YES!
It would appear that in 2015 we are on the glory road of having our s**t together, so why is it “for all working-age Black women between the age of 18-64, the financial picture remains bleak with an average household wealth of $100? Hispanic women come in slightly higher at $120.” These numbers were first shared in 2010 via an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, fast forward 5 years and absolutely nothing has changed. Where is the movement moving us, and why is Hip-Hop being portrayed as the soundtrack of its non-existent growth? It feels more like a bad scene from the Five Heartbeats than the beating hearts of a frustrated, fed-up, fight back mentality having BLACK PEOPLE.
When I put my red, black and green agenda down at any given moment you can catch me in some cut off shorts prancing around my house feeling myself in true Nicki and Queen B fashion due to my confidence and overwhelming need to represent for the strong black woman with a serious bit of sexy, but let me be honest in saying that behind those same closed doors I question just how much there is to feel when every day is a struggle just to be present, recognized, vindicated through my efforts, and truly just to live this life without drowning in all the odds that are stacked against me. I wanna stop the world too B, or at the very least make a serious impact upon it and I need to know if that can happen with a wealth of less than $100. I’m seriously doubting it.
Yes, I have a degree and yes it was supposed to catapult me to the forefront beyond those who chose not to participate in higher learning, but it appears that it is getting harder not easier to use that piece of paper to bring about a fulfillment through social change, while reaping a financial return to pay back the hefty loans that came with acquiring said degree.
So my questions are: where is the reward for the sacrifice, and when will my efforts and advancement not be contingent upon the very system that I’m fighting against? Just because you lay a heavy beat on it and get some Pied Piper from the suburbs to present it to me in bogus deliverables and measurable that float in the cloud, doesn’t make it right, doable or justified and it definitely doesn’t change the dynamics of the community that most of the Black women, men and children I know reside in. The movement isn’t a record deal and a record deal is NOT the path to FREEDOM for at least 98% of the working class black people I know in this struggle. What the hell is everyone doing at SXSW??? Are they feeding people there?
My reality is that if I died today, degree clinched in my fist, arm extended and raised above my head as if I were screaming Black Power with my very last breath, I would still be worth less than $100. So again I ask, “Where exactly is the movement moving us?” I guess Lauryn was right. Everything is everything; it’s just not the THING I was banking on.