You should already know Iyanla Vanzant isn’t one to hold her tongue and when she came to our office for an interview, she told us all about ourselves — us meaning black women. When asked about a comment that she made during the Essence Festival when she said black women are out of order, Vanzant told us:
“We have such a rich culture and in that culture, there are roles and purposes and powers. And we live in a society now where women are commodities, where women are demeaned, diminished, demoralized in ways that we accommodate. And if we really understood who we are as feminine representations of the creator of the universe, some of the things that we experience in life — like crying when the unemployed boo boo leaves us — if we really understood who we are, we wouldn’t be so apt to let other people define us and confine us. We are out of order!”
From there, Vanzant went on to talk about the lack of boundaries women have and how we tend to let any and everyone — usually men — do anything to us, while turning our backs on and wronging other women rather than forming strong sisterhoods. Sounds out of order to us! Listen to Vanzant’s analysis of the state of black women and what we can do to remedy our issues. Do you agree with her?
