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If ever you needed proof about the fragility of Black masculinity, look no further than what Donna Farrakhan, daughter of Louis Farrakhan, had to say about how Black women are allegedly emasculating Black men.

I have no context for this 8-minute long clip other than it comes courtesy of our friend, Dr. Boyce Watkins. He uploaded it on his YouTube page on October 4th 2015 and it is steadily making the rounds among the “Notep” community. So you know it is chock full of ridiculousness about Black women and “effeminate men.”

Anyway, as Farrakhan tells it:

“Reverse roles. Who is working today, brothers and sisters? The Black woman. Who’s making more money? The Black woman. Who is more educated? The Black woman. Whose world are we in? The White man’s world. He allows us in his world to put the woman in front. If the woman is in front, she is taking the road of who? The male. In the Bible and in the Quran it says the man is the maintainer of woman. But in the White man’s kingdom, he reverses that, what God has made nature for us and natural, he reverses our nature and he puts the woman out front. He makes a society where she can go out and be employed, but when you come to ask for a job, he is like ‘oh I’m sorry. You are overqualified. Not qualified enough. We just gave the last job to another person.”

Okay, let’s pause right here for a second while some of you catch and gather your feelings because you are going to need them when you read the rest. As she continues on:

“So your woman is out in front of you. She’s working. She is bringing home the bread and butter. He’s got her bamboozled because now, with a little money in her pocket. She starts getting a little heavy voice. With a little money in her pocket, her mouth is uncontrollable. What is she saying to you? She’s saying I make the money in this house. I pay the cost to be the boss. If you don’t like what I say, you know what to do. She’s not seeing the bigger picture. The hidden hand. She’s not seeing hidden hand of the White man, the slave master. We have the appearance of being free but he is still in all of our affairs.”

Yes, because somehow racism doesn’t affect Black women. That’s why it is hidden. Why the way Farrakhan talks, you’d think it was only Black men who had been kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in America.

Oh wait:

“When he stole the Black man from over in Africa, he never intended on him being a man. He never intended on him taking care of his woman. He never intended on him having power and authority. So in his world, in order to break him, he reverses the roles and make it seems like progress to us when we are out here working in his vineyard. We are happy about our degrees that we receive; the money that we are making. But as we rise, he is pulling the Black man down.”

And scene.

Listen, I am going to cut right to the chase here and admit how much I abhor abusive men and the women who defend their behavior just for bean pie points. Seriously, anyone who tries to malign a woman’s independence as a threat to the community’s well-being has no interest in the “saving” the community at all.

After all, what have patriarchal societies gotten us?

Did patriarchal societies save us from the White man brazenly conquering the shores of West Africa and beyond? Did patriarchal societies stop the same White men from stealing our ancestors’ land, kidnapping their wives and children and forever altering our religious and cultural identities?

Did patriarchal societies save our ancestors from the plantation? Did men-led families save their wives and children from being forcefully removed from one plantation and displaced all over the South? Did being from a two parent household spare those offsprings from Jim Crow and segregation? Did patriarchy save both Dr. King and Brother Malcolm from being assassinated?

Likewise, is patriarchy saving the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram? Is it saving the 125 million girls who are subjected to female genital mutilation? Is our insistence on submission saving women in Bangladesh from having their faces burned off from acid attacks or girl children in China from being murdered just because they were born the wrong gender? Did patriarchal societies ever stop rape? Or domestic abuse? Or even the economic disenfranchisement of women and children? Did patriarchy save those many Black women stuck behind bars for crimes that involved following after, or playing accomplice, to some man? Has clinging to the archaic belief that men must lead ever stopped a war or freed a single nation from the clutches of colonialism and imperialism?

To the contrary. When societies, throughout history, decided it was only “natural” for us to subjugate, oppressed, enslave, abuse and even murder a person because of their gender, we essentially made it okay to subjugate, oppress, enslave, abuse and even murder people for other equally divisive reasons.

And I hate to break it to some folks: in spite of our prevalence of single mother dominated homes in the Black community, we are not in a matriarchy.

Not when there is no accountability for the hordes of fatherless children being left behind within these homes. Not when the dominate society still fights and seeks to oppress all women, let alone “his” own. Not when Black women find themselves routinely being abused and taking advantage of by some lowdown and dirty bums, all because of a need to fulfill some primitive ideas about man-led households. Not when every man, woman, child and institution in the community including churches, mosques and the Israelites preach and practice a doctrine which states that our collective freedom as a people can only come through the total submission of women to men.

How can we even form our lips and dare claim a matriarchy when the brothers are the only ones becoming wealthy and affluent of an entire musical genre, which thrives off of the disrespect and exploitation of Black women? In what fictitious woman-led society do we see this going down at?

But let’s say that it is true, which it is not. But let’s say that it is true: the White man is giving all the education and jobs to Black women while the brothers get nothing. Why is the Black men’s beef with Black women?

Why isn’t he uniting with his brothers and taking up their fight with the White man? They are the ones who are allegedly created this paradigm for his oppression? They’re the reason he can’t get jobs. They are the ones shooting them like rabid dogs out in the streets. Black women are just caught up in the mix like everyone else. So why is he competing with her for ownership of his masculinity?

Doesn’t make much sense does it?

And if having a job and education ain’t nothing but the “White man’s kingdom,” why are Farrakhan, and all the brothers who co-sign this nonsense, still out here trying to be knighted under the White man’s dominion?

Man listen, I try to respect everyone’s religious beliefs. But at the same time, Donna Farrakhan is only the second lady minister in Nation of Islam history, which makes you wonder how some of the brothers think about her stealing their jobs. But I guess she is exceptional.

Nope, our continued insistence on adhering to the same old systems of oppression has gotten us no got-damn where in particular. And maybe – just maybe – for the sake of all humanity, we need to stop only thinking about men and their fragile egos and get down to the actual business of freeing us all – women and girls included.

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