3. That BLACK CHICKS are still a RARITY in the pages of VOGUE

I picked up the September 2004 issue of Vogue magazine with great anticipation. What would be the fashion bible’s take on this season’s fly looks, which I am completely feeling? I mean, that 40s/50s vibe is so my thing- the full skirts, the tiny, fitted jackets, the glam furs (sorry PETA) and retro bling.
Yet, as I perused the over 900 pages, an increasing sense of disquiet grew within me. There was only one black model in the cover spread, which heralded the return of the superstar model to the cover page by featuring 9 allegedly top girls on the cover. Liya Kebede was the only black model to make it amongst a sea of white girls. Then, in a section dedicated to stylish “ordinary” women, there was not one woman of color- Asian, African or Latina- to be found. Now you can’t tell me that in the whole of these United States, let alone NEW YORK CITY, there exists not one put-together darker-hued woman! Vogue, as the acknowledged fashion leader, needs to step up and change things. You have the credibility, the longevity, to do as you please on your pages- why not use your clout to set the world on its ear?
PUT A BLACK WOMAN ON THE COVER. ALL BY HERSELF. FOR 3 MONTHS IN A ROW. You’d cause a splash of bankable publicity and gain thousands nay millions of devoted readers in the process.
Your move.

2. That WOMEN are in DANGER of LOSING to FUNDAMENTALISM

A wierd, insidious fundamentalism is creeping into women's affairs. Not just (and most outstandingly) in Islamic countries, where our best buds the Saudis still won't allow women to drive their own cars, but into everyday life in communities around the world. On the face of it, you wouldn't acknowledge it such strong terms, but you must agree that these attempts to erode women's rights, indeed, to disavow the fact that women are human beings, can (left unchecked) lead to a larger conflagration.
The publication Marie Claire is known as a fashion magazine, but is less widely-acknowledged as a consistent activist/educator with regard to women's rights. In the October 2004 issue, some countries were highlighted as being soft to apparently criminal on domestic violence.
- 89% of Phillipine women are in abusive relationships, yet few seek help due to the pervasive attitude that women must be "docile and subservient in their intimate relationships" .(Taylor, Marie Claire, Oct 04, P32)
- In Belgium, the police force are lax about investigating complaints of domestic violence, so much so that "a majority of domestic violence complaints go unprosecuted". (Taylor, Marie Claire, Oct 04, P32)
Additionally, in the Congo, little girls are tortured and abused for the crime of witchcraft, a situation highlighted in a Marie Claire article by Jan Goodwin in the Sept 04 issue. It seems that anything from untimely death to sudden weather changes are blamed on pre-school girls, who are then painfully (and profitably) "exorcised" by charlatan preachers.
In our own America, the accession to power of an admittedly, rabidly religious President has mushroomed a threat to women's rights that is unprecedented since Roe vs Wade. For the first time, the reproductive rights of women are being challenged. I submit to you that the unstated agenda behind all of this is to put women in their place, to make it known to us that our bodies belong not to ourselves, but the cowboys in government. The issue also has larger implications for the wider society. In 1989, Colette Hodes, a postdoctoral associate at MIT,submitted this post to MIT's online newspaper "The Tech":
"I believe many, like me, are afraid that the passive erosion of women's rights that characterized the Reagan years may become an active attack on basic human rights under George Bush's administration. When Bush, during his first day in office, sent both a telegram of support and his vice president to the anti-abortionists (I refuse the hypocrisy of calling any group which prevents women from getting health care, destroys clinics, and has recently resumed pumping bullets into "Jane Roe's" family's car and home, "pro-life") marching on Washington, I remember thinking "What is he going to do tomorrow? Address a rally of the Ku Klux Klan?" Which leads me to what I took home as the central message from Jesse Jackson's speech: an individual"s absolute right to control over one's body was made constitutional with the abolition of slavery. It is un-American to demand otherwise."
(Colette Hodes, The Tech, 4/21/89)
Seems to me that Dad's work is continuing apace. According to the National Organization for Women,
"More than three decades after Roe, we face a deeply threatening political environment. A virtual tidal wave of anti-abortion and anti-contraception legislation is weeping across the 50 states, resulting in 380 new state laws since 1995 that limit or deny access to reproductive health services." (Jan Erickson, National NOW Times, Spring 04)
How can we not come together as women to prevent our rights being legislated into the ether? When will women finally decide that we are the masters of our fate? That we have brains to read, research, process and understand? When will we recognize that the dogmatic, hyper-religious claptrap we tend to regurgitate is brainwashing? Have you realized that all the religious books were written by men, and that history (and laws) are written from the point of view of the conqueror?
OK. I'm done now.

I hold these truths to be self- evident:

1. That GENOCIDE in the SUDAN is REAL
If you've been paying attention to the media lately (I know it's rough but you gotta) you would have gained some idea of the awful reality of the crisis that now exists in Sudan, specifically the region known as Darfur. It is a FACT that the Arab ethnic group is systematically exterminating Black Sudanese, under the apparent patronage of the Sudanese government. The attacks, perpetrated by an Arab militia with the sci-fi-like name of Janjaweed (and therefore highlighting the unreality/surreality of acts like these in this, the "enlightened" 21st century) have compelled almost 2 million to leave their homes (NY Post Sat 9/25/04). Recent reports set the death toll so far at between 30,000-50,000 (BBC.com, 7/26/04).
One report even states that 6000-10000 people are dying each month (David Gow, The Guardian,9/14/04). That's like having 9/11 happen two or three times a month. And when you compare the cumulative death toll to that of the entire US casualty list in Vietnam, which was 58,169, according to Vietnam Wall.org... well, remember it took 14 years for that total to accumulate. The Janjaweed have only been at it since early 2003, according to New Jersey Jewish News reporter Jerry Fowler, who experienced the situation first hand this year.
The atrocity in Sudan extends to the old-school tactic of raping black women in an attempt to "cleanse" the region of dark blood. The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an address on September 24 to the UN Security Council, stated: "The tragedy in Darfur is one of the greatest challenges the international community faces today. The whole world is watching this tragedy unfold, and it is watching us. No one can be allowed to sidestep or ignore their responsibility to protect the innocent civilians." Even so, the UN has so far failed to come up with a better response than a well-written speech. As of this date, the United Nations has not approved any sanctions or any other action against the Sudanese government.
The US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an uncharacteristically bold, brave statement early this month, called the situation what it is, genocide. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mutapha Osman Ismail powered back by saying that this was the Bush regime's attempt to obfuscate the real deal:
"This is a politicized agenda for the [United States General] election," said Ismail. (Associated Press, 9/13/04)
Think WE'LL be the judge of that, buddy.
More news organizations are taking up the mantle of this cause, and Vanity Fair's October issue recently saluted 4 people: two journalists, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and the British writer Julie Flint, along with United States Congressman Donald Payne and John Prendergast, a specialist in African affairs at the International Crisis Group. The quartet has essentially served as the Paul Reveres of this situation, riding around the world to bear witness and seek action. (Vanity Fair, Oct 04, P198)
Even the right-wing New York Post is op-edding on the situation- last Saturday (Sep 25) they weighed in with a stinging piece, "Diplos Dither, Darfur Dies", calling for more decisive action from the world community and deploring the hand-wringing over the issue at the UN. "Perhaps by the time everyone is dead, U.N. apparatchiks will have it sorted out".
Think: In the Summer of 1994, Romeo Dallaire, a UN General in charge of peace-keeping forces stationed in Rwanda, sent an urgent message to the UN, warning them of the atrocities being perpetrated against the Tutsis. Nothing was done and 800,000 people died. (Hemphill/Agilar, Daily Egyptian, 4/27/01) Here we are exactly 10 years later. Throughout the summer, there have been reports, small and large, that something awful is happening in Sudan.
I think as human beings we have a tendency to want someone to walk right up to us and scream in our faces before we can be justifiably horrified. But this is how it starts.
Spring 1915: 300 Armenian leaders and writers are slaughtered in Constantinople.
Spring 1933: the first concentration camp is established at Dachau.
Late Spring 1951: the Chinese government finesses its illegal occupation of Tibet in 1949 by forcing the Tibetan government to sign a 17 point agreement. This was the jumpstart to the killing of over one million Tibetans. Overall, the Chinese government gets rid of reportedly over 20 million of its enemies (Tibetan and mainland Chinese) between 1949 and 1976. (Lethal Laws, Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice, 1994)
1971-1979: Idi Amin kills 300,000 rivals (Lethal Laws, Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice, 1994)
Early Summer 1994: General Dallaire gives the first report of ethnic violence against the Tutsis.
Fall 2004... let history read that disaster was averted.
PASTE & READ more via links below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3925239.stm
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp
WRITE to the UN or your congressman
And if you're in New York, ATTEND:
Catastrophe in Darfur-A Panel Discussion sponsored by Doctors without Borders
Thu Sep 30, 2004
Tishman Auditorium, New School University
66 West 12th Street, NY
Tix: 212.847.3151

Editor’s Rant:

So I started this little missive as a way of dealing with my anger at what I was seeing going on in the world.
There was so much and it got to be too much. The ramifications of this mad war with Iraq. Little or no black faces in the media. The ugliness/apathy of the current presidential race. What I see as an insidious attempt by the religious right to comletely erase women's rights.
My sensibility toward political and current affairs came from my father, who was a left-wing journalist in my native Trinidad and Tobago.

My mother, a career schoolteacher, was always a sharp element in front of the blackboard, and I was encouraged early on to explore and find what worked for me. Thus the other key element of this blog: style and design critique. Wierd combo, but IT'S MY BLOG-deal with it.

So there you have it- 30-something black girl passionate about the development of her race, opinionated and informed about what’s going on in the world and with a definite yen for the stylish things in life.

In this first tome I present the three things I am most up-in-arms about lately. Discussion/spirited argument/uninhibited yelling is strongly encouraged.

EUPHORIA