We will soon begin with solutions to issues posed on this blog and present how-to strategies for the Christian woman who has identified herself as a strong black woman. In the meantime, listen to this poetic version of The Re-imagined Strong Black Woman.
Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
I don’t have a problem with all of feminists’ work, because women need to be treated humanely. I don’t have a problem with the Afrocentrists’ fight, because race should be recognized not idealized. And I don’t have a problem with making money and reaching social status, because money and connections can help to establish God’s kingdom on earth. The problem I have is not with various causes that women who identify as strong black women engage in; I just have a problem when these causes seem to be more about humanity than divinity, more about what we can do and not what He can do, about the need to please man and not please God, to bring ourselves glory and not glory to Jesus Christ. This is what drives this blog and has been the basis for a book of the same subject matter that I have been tweaking for almost 10 years.
It’s taken about 10 years because when I started I was a young strong black woman who got a taste of recovery and wanted to wag her finger at everyone who hadn’t yet sought to be healed. Older now—and understanding that I have not arrived (thus still being in recovery), I am wiser now and know the road is slow and steady and takes a chisel to reshape the self-defined strong black woman. I heard a preacher yesterday challenge Christians to not “be a spiritual good for nothing.” He derived this phrase from what “bad” means in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.” This bad is not evil deeds for the Christian because our sin was judged when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. This bad for us is worthless acts, doing things humans deem good, but they have no spiritual value. In other words, you’re involved in causes that don’t bring God glory but bring man glory. You are being a spiritual good for nothing.
Before getting involved with anything, we must always ask ourselves, “What are my motives behind this mission?” Answering this question should help us steer away from our desires to please man and only seek to please God. For the first six months of this blog, I have cited several areas where I have gone wrong seeking to be the world’s standard of a strong black woman. These insights gave little if any solutions. For the next six months or so, I will attempt to reexamine these issues and give way to solutions. In the next two blogs or so I intend to give you direction for this new framework that I’m calling “The Strong Black Woman: Re-imagined and Reengineered.”
Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
Iyanla Vanzant
After deafening cheers from the audience and panelists, Vanzant told black folks that trust was their second area of responsibility and that grandma said black folks show a lack of trust by what they say and do. Ultimately, they turn to the government, instead of themselves, to get what they want. “I don’t need George Bush to tell me who I am and who I’m not,” Vanzant said. “I don’t need that. What I gotta do is go within myself.” And, as she has said throughout sharing this spiritual moment, going within herself means tapping into ancestral spirits to help her and others recognize “their divinity, their power, but also recognizing the things they do to sabotage themselves. . . .So, yes, me and grandma are having a moment. And it’s all good.”
Maybe you thought like me at first. Beyond the ethereal talk, I thought that Vanzant may have just been referring to the values her grandmother instilled in her but was just using present tense to describe how her grandmother would talk to Vanzant when she was alive. But then Vanzant closed her remarks with this: “So let us as individuals, as we address each and every one of these issues, please let us not forget that grandma will speak to you, and not only will she speak to you, but she knows that they owe you her salary, and she’ll tell you how to get it.” I love my grandmothers, and they were wonderful women. I remember their wisdom and use it. But I remember what they told me and don’t seek to find out what they can yet tell me. This is divination. This is witchcraft. This is worshipping the dead. This is not the way to honor the ancestors, if you’re a bible-believing Christian.
“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19, NIV). Isaiah asks us two good questions that we need to ponder. If we do indeed believe in “giving honor to God who is the head of my life,” then we should make that statement true, and seek him. And if we must talk to an ancestor, let it be someone alive who God has told us to seek. Grandma may have had some good ideas, but only the one who was and is and is to come, Jesus the Christ, has the best ideas, and we must seek him for our strength.
Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
Yesterday the Detroit Branch NAACP honored some civil rights giants during its annual Freedom Fund Dinner. Among the awards given were the Mary White Ovington Freedom and Justice Award given to the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Mary Church Terrell Freedom and Justice Award given to the Rev. Edwin A. Rowe, pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Detroit. I chose to highlight these two awards because they were named after female ancestors who made great contributions to the fight for human rights, particularly for blacks and women. They were founding members of the NAACP 100 years ago and were chosen to help establish this civil rights group because of work they had been doing prior to 1909. An award named after someone is definitely an appropriate way to acknowledge ancestors.
Some other proper tributes include the naming of a street, building or some other monument; the creation of art, like a sculpture, painting, poem, or documentary; and a holiday to honor that ancestor. All these ways keep their memories alive in those of us familiar with them and prompt others of us to seek information about them. As I read the newspaper about the Freedom Fund Dinner, I was able to introduce some and reinforce other present day activists to my six-year-old son, simply because the paper talked about the honors they received. From the NAACP tribute to a newspaper that highlighted their achievements, I was able to etch into my son’s mind the work of our ancestors. The preserving of memories is important, and we must give honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7). We just need to make sure that the honor preserves their memory and their proper place in our lives, as humans who contributed to the advancement of humanity.
Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
I didn’t make it to see Sonia Sanchez as I planned on Wednesday. Caring for my family and home wore me out. There were the doctors’ appointments, the medicating of cuts, the comforting of crying children, yadda, yadda, yadda. I had to rest my tired body and soul. I wanted to see and hear Sanchez, but that just wasn’t prudent. Anyway, the more I thought about Sanchez’s quotation regarding writing to keep in contact with our ancestors, I realized I didn’t need to ask her what she meant, though it would have been nice to have her view confirmed; my initial intent when presenting the quotation was to talk about the whole notion of acknowledging the dead.
Let me say right now: we must acknowledge our ancestors, those living and dead. We gain strength from their greatness; we understand our ancestral legacy; we know what’s good to follow and what changes we need to make based on their successes and failures. Our health depends on acknowledging them: our racial health, physical health, emotional health, political health, spiritual health. I think you get what I’m saying. It’s up to us to always remember and to inform our progeny of familial history.
The question for me is never do we acknowledge our ancestors but “How do we acknowledge them?” I told of a cautionary tale in my “Death of a Superwoman.” I mentioned a bit in my “Proper Tribute” post. But now and in the next few posts, I want to discuss as God’s Woman following God’s Word the proper and improper ways to acknowledge our ancestors. This is important for me as a recovering strong black woman with the collective legacy of racial and gender oppression. Even with these factors, God’s Word must trump my race and my gender. What are your thoughts? What do you think are the proper and improper ways to acknowledge ancestors? I’ll start by saying this picture displays a great way to acknowledge a great woman of our past.
Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
My friend Kim Trent (far left), activist Annette Rainwater and National Congress of Black Women President E. Faye Williams stand with a bust of freedom fighter Sojourner Truth, the first black woman to be acknowledged with a statue in the US Capitol's statutory collection