Category Archives: Race

Acknowledge the Ancestors

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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

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

Connecting with Ancestors

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Sonia Sanchez

Sonia Sanchez

“…I write to keep in contact with our ancestors (emphasis mine) and to spread truth to people”—Sonia Sanchez

This week’s quotation comes from another famous poet, scholar and activist Sonia Sanchez, one of the foremost writers during the Black Arts Movement in the mid-1960s through the 1970s. I love Sanchez, the depth of her messages and the cadence of her words that penetrate your soul and make you think and move. One of my favorite pieces is her “Does Your House Have Lions?” where in eerily beautiful terms she describes the family journey with her brother who is dying from AIDS. I like Sanchez’s writing and her love for humanity. When I saw the above quotation I was struck about her desire to connect with humanity. Considering this quotation alongside Deuteronomy 18:10-11, Isaiah 8:19 and Job 8:8-10, what are your thoughts about what Sanchez has said, particularly the emphasized part? You know there’s more to come from me. Let me know what you think first.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Afrocentrism

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Dr. Molefi Asante

Dr. Molefi Asante

“You’re Afrocentric,” people often say to me, referring to my hair or the way I often dress. This is because I’ve worn my hair in its natural state for the past 17 years and don African clothes. Hair and clothes are just outward expressions, though, and don’t necessarily reflect a person’s worldview. Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is much more than hair and clothes. This theory explores African identity from the perspective of African people throughout the world. Afrocentrism, developed by scholar Molefi Kete Asante, Ph.D. (though many more before him advanced the concept), more than two decades ago, also seeks to look at the world by emphasizing the contributions of people of African descent. If you practice Afrocentrism you are an Afrocentrist and your view is Afrocentric.

This concept has gone from the classroom and into everyday life, as seen in the comments toward me. As this concept has spread many have rejected it because of the view that Afrocentrists seek to displace other views in favor of Afrocentrism. Dr. Asante says that his goal is to have Afrocentrism as one view among many. The goal of Afrocentrism is not to displace but to come along side other worldviews to offer an alternative view, one through the eyes of people who have often been marginalized and made to embrace other cultures (i.e., European) without regard to their own (http://tinyurl.com/conpew). This theory, like feminism and just about any other worldview, has extremists. The extreme Afrocentrist may believe in black supremacy and seek to replace all other worldviews.

So some women who call themselves strong black women consider themselves Afrocentric. And though I’m recovering from my strong black woman status, I consider myself, for the most part, an Afrocentrist. Beyond my clothes and hair, my personal goal is for people to see, hear and understand all of me, not just the Christian me, but the black me and the woman me. I have to be on guard so that Afrocentrism doesn’t become extreme in me and I forget that Christ has called me to be a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). In a non-biblical way, people can reconcile by seeing each other and not trying to be the other. But higher than that is the way of Christ, where true reconciliation is with God the Father through a relationship with Jesus Christ. As I seek to have people understand me, the first way I need to promote is the way of Christ.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Africana Womanism

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In my college days in search to self identity as a black woman living in America, I read a lot of literature. One of my favorite authors during my quest was scholar bell hooks. She has a no-holds barred approach to discussing race and black women’s place or misplace in society. She often says black women need to define ourselves and self-actualize, that is become who we defined ourselves to be. That resonated with me as one who always thought there was nothing wrong with my natural hair; I decided that I was okay with a kinky mane so I reverted to natural and was not ashamed.

Professor Clenora Hudson-Weems, Ph.D., author of Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, also believes in self-definition. Though her theory sounds like Alice Walker’s womanism, Dr. Hudson-Weems takes exception to Walker’s term (see previous entry). She believes that the great emphases shouldn’t be on the woman, her sexuality and culture and that the comparison between feminism and womanism are too closely aligned. Her Africana womanist, in contrast, “is significantly different from the mainstream feminist, particularly in her perspective on and approach to issues in society” (24). Dr. Hudson-Weems advances her position with the following 18 characteristics of Africana womanism: self-namer; self-definer; family-centered; in concert with males in struggle; flexible roles; genuine sisterhood; strength; male compatible; respected; recognized; whole; authentic; spirituality; respectful of elders; adaptable; ambitious; mothering; and nurturing.

For the most part, I like her list. But as you already guessed it, I take exception to some of the characteristics, especially the first two. Do you, from your own opinion, name and define who you are or do you claim the name and definition that Christ has given you? As a Christian who is black and a woman, I must accept my God-given blackness and womanhood and never deny these aspects of me. But before I am black and woman I am a Christian and must embrace what Christ says about me.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Feminism vs. Womanism

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Many black women have rejected the term feminist because of the history of racial exclusion of nonwhites to the feminist movement. Before women received the right to vote (and black men had the right), white feminist and conservative suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt said: “[T]here is but one way to avert the danger. Cut off the vote of the slums and give it to [White] women.” Catt continued that white men should recognize “the usefulness of woman suffrage as a counterbalance to the foreign vote, and as a means of legally preserving White supremacy in the South.” This was during the first wave of feminism (early 1800s-1950s). The second wave of feminism (mid-1960s-present) has had a similar emphasis on race. Because recent feminism has focused greatly on the liberation of middle class white women from white male patriarchy, some black women have not felt that this movement is for them.

This type of emphasis is what led writer Alice Walker to develop the term womanist, and many black women, including some of us who are Christian, have embraced this label. Walker defines womanist as “[a] black feminist or feminist of color. . .who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture. . .[and who] sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. . .Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender” (from Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens). Do you consider yourself a feminist? If not, do you think womanist is a suitable alternative to feminist? As a Christian, do you think that you should call yourself a feminist or womanist? Why or why not? I am really looking forward to hearing from you.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith