CULTURE CLASH (WOMEN’S ISSUES)
Graphic courtesy of Vecteezy
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SAY THEIR NAMES. The ABC Original series “Women of the Movement” opens Season One centering Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, and exploring her fight for judicial relief in the bowels of an extremely confederate 1950s Mississippi. The events surrounding the August 28, 1955 lynching murder of Emmet Till and his mother’s fight to bring his murderers to justice propelled the Civil Rights Movement forward in the United States. Fast-forward 65 years - May 25, 2020 - the nation watches helplessly while a full grown Black man calls out for his mother as his life is literally extinguished in broad daylight, George Floyd. Emmett Till. Travon Martin. Tamir Rice. Grieving mothers, broken hearts, and hurtful unjust verdicts. The movement for human rights rests in the bosom of women’s pain, Black women’s pain. Say their names. Women’s issues are nuanced at best. The fingerprints of so many women are enduring legacies in the heart and soul of Civil Rights Movement throughout 20
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2022 opened up with all facets of the country in transition. Redistricting maps across the nation continue to capture headlines as some states in the Union display long established patterns of intentional discrimination. Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maryland are presenting the most gerrymandered maps for 2022. For Black women in leadership, the complexities of various women’s issues, compounded by the reality of the resistance challenging their authority, women like Fulton County, Georgia’s District Attorney Fani Willis and New York’s Attorney General Letiticia James are necessary to achieve transparent accountability and whose expertise is pivotal in the quest to establish a more perfect union through judicial equity.
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The recent bomb threats at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), of which at least 25% of the presidents are women who identify as Black, the heightened potential for physical violence against Black people has become more real in recent years. The threats menacing the lives of Black faculty, staff, and students are too closely reminiscent of the collective pain.
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the history of this country. Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley, Mrs. Myrlie Evers-Williams, the women of the Floyd family, Representative Lucy McBath (GA), Sybrina Fulton and every mother enduring the pain of the loss, the sting of the injustice, and the exhaustion of the fight, these stories must continue to be amplified while simultaneously allowing space for new voices to enter the historical discourse. As the nation prepares for the Biden administration to announce the nominee for the vacant Supreme Court Justice seat (SCOTUS), the push for more women in leadership, particularly Black women and other women of color, has illuminated glaring double standards and disturbing patterns of intentional discrimination in the institutions responsible for protections and policies.
The pain is agitated further by the aggressive attempts to take over local school boards as depicted in Southlake, Texas. The school board fights along with the statewide and national naziesque book bans overlaying censorship of curriculum all happening under the guise of anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT), puts a certain chill up the spine. The threats aimed toward Black voices seem to know no bounds and are bound by no laws. By removing authors and books like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the established majority is deliberately ignoring policies meant to prevent censorship to placate an unreasonable group of parents with ideologies from the fringes of society. There is a popular social media meme that sums it up best that reads: ‘The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset their grandchildren might learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school.’
Locally, BIPOC candidates and constituents in La Marque, and other rural districts in Southeast Texas have allegedly been harassed and threatened with physical violence. Yet each of these servant leaders continues to stand tall in their perspective offices and are brave representatives of the daily harassment experienced by BIPOC public officials, when being confronted by C U LTU R EC L A S H G A LV E STO N . C O M • M A R /A P R 2 0 2 2
