When Will Black Men Stand Up For Our Black Women?

(This was originally a conversation on my twitter page. See here for a link to the posts.)

So...I have a blog in my heart I need to get out. The topic is how we as black men support our black women.

So when it comes to standing up for/beside/behind black men, women step up to the plate every time.Black men? We don't. And that makes me ashamed man. Why can't we be better about that? We have to be. 

Frankly, as black men we all should be ashamed at the collective effort to support our black women.You know how rough they have it? They are black AND women. Double whammy. Twitter is a perfect microcosm of what goes on in the real world. Black men stand by while our black women are drug through the mud. And I know this is a highly debated topic, but patriarchy is a big cause if this.

We've got to be better, myself included. It starts with standing up for our black women against other black men. So many black men are conditioned to mistreat black women to the point they are conditioned to accept it. Sad state of affairs.

It's...depressing.

Yet our black women are there right behind us...supporting us nonetheless. Take care of home. Black women are home. And we are leaving that house to fend for itself. I've spent so much time looking and analyzing...shaking my head and observing. I've pushed and supported the black women in MY life. I can and should be doing more.

Black women are out here putting their neck on the line in support of us. We may not be the ones cutting them off, but we damn sure sharpen the tool. And who is holding black men accountable? No one. When we should be self-policing. We outchea just standing by. When has that ever created change?!

Just...be better. And encourage other black women around you to be better. If enough of us start supporting our black women, standing up for our black women, it'll become contagious. There are not enough black men out here standing up. Black women do it all the time and it seems to fall on deaf ears. Maybe if more black men talk about it the message will come across.

As always...black women, you all are so damn wonderful. Know that.

Y'all be easy.

My Love Letter to Black Women

I was recently tasked by a Twitter friend to write a love letter to black women. I've actually been putting off writing this because I wasn't sure exactly what to say. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's that so much comes to mind that it's kind of hard to sort it all out. There's so much TO BE said, but I don't want to drone on and on. So...here goes. Nothing long...

Dear BW,

You are the most amazing of God's creations to me. Daily I see examples of women exuding the purest form of many adjectives we assign to people: beauty, strength, power, resilience. To me, you are the walking example of how God intended for woman to be; you're a walking example of those adjectives.

It saddens me that the world doesn't see you the same. The world sees beauty as Jennifer Aniston. The world sees power as Hillary Clinton. The world paints the black woman as ugly, irate, angry, needy, and undesirable. What's even sadder, is not only when black men start to believe this of black women, but when black women start to believe this of themselves.

Iyanla Vanzant once said, "Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth."

It's up to all of us to reaffirm your awesomeness. To let you AND the world know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are incomparable. So this is my pledge to you. I pledge to tell you that you are beautiful when the world decides you aren't. I pledge to be your support when the world has tried to knock you down a notch. I pledge to be a voice when the world tries to silence yours. And I pledge to fight for and with you. And when I'm lucky enough to be blessed with one of you as a life partner? I pledge to never take that for granted. I firmly believe that nobody loves another like a black woman loves a black man.

"We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth."

Together, the possibilities are endless and infinite. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are powerful. You are resilient. You are a beautiful black woman.

Love,

~Noble