Photo de Jour: Same ish, different year

This photo of a Black man was taken in 1935 but it could have been taken today as the unemployment rate for African Americans remains at twice that of the general population.

Some things just never change.

Obscure Heroes: Before Rosa Parks there was Octavius Catto

From Wikipedia

Octavious Catto fought fearlessly for the desegregation of Philadelphia’s trolley car system. The May 18, 1865 issue of the New York Times ran a story discussing the civil disobedience tactics employed by Catto as he fought for civil rights:


Philadelphia, Wednesday, May 17—2 P. M.

Last evening a colored man got into a Pine-street passenger car, and refused all entreaties to leave the car, where his presence appeared to be not desired. The conductor of the car, fearful of being fined for ejecting him, as was done by the Judges of one of our courts in a similar case, ran the car off the track, detached the horses, and left the colored man to occupy the car all by himself. The colored man still firmly maintains his position in the car, having spent the whole of the night there. The conductor looks upon the part he enacted in the affair as a splendid piece of strategy. The matter creates quite a sensation in the neighborhood where the car is standing, and crowds of sympathizers flock around the colored man.

(New York Times, May 18, 1865, p. 5)


"...enlisting the help of US Senators Thaddeus Stevens and William D. Kelley, Catto was instrumental in the passage of a Pennsylvania bill that prohibited segregation on transit systems in the state."


Read more about Octavius Catto here

The Sunday Report: The BBC wants to help African American women find a mate

If you have time please listen to this BBC Radio report. It's about 22 minutes long and is the subject of this post. The BBC report is about the supposed difficulty college educated heterosexual African American women have finding a mate.

The mainstream media it seems is obsessed with this subject. And is it because the mainstream media is concerned about Black woman? Hell no. In my opinion they are simply gloating and promoting the idea of Black pathologies. I mean how many stories on this subject really need to be done when it's the same exact story over and over again?

In this BBC report a reporter at first talks to a Black woman, Renee, who says that she's looking for a professional Black man. In the next segment the reporter talks to a Black guy, named Andre, who says he's a convicted felon. Huh?

So why the hell is this reporter talking to a convicted felon?

The reporter continues in the next segment by talking to some White guy who runs a non-profit that helps ex-convicts. He goes on about how dysfunctional the men he attempts to help are. He even apparently is an expert on Black women as he basically calls Black women goldiggers.



Then inexplicably they set-up Renee on a blind date with the convicted felon, Andre, who has already admitted earlier in the piece that he's unemployed and is currently selling drugs. WTF?

After the supposed blind date the reporter talks with both Renee and Andre. Renee basically calls this guy out for what he is, a dealer. And Andre talks about how much he enjoyed the date and that he hopes that Renee will see him again. But he then, after being prompted to do so by the reporter, goes on to give his thoughts on, "hood sistas". He says that usually after talking with a, "hood sista", for the first time that in his experience they are ready for sex. Why miss an opportunity to put Black women down, right?

Renee of course says that Andre is not for her. That though she understands all of the problems Black men face that she would not want to date Andre as their lifestyles are too different. Wow, big surprise. Did they really have to set this blind date up to figure this out?

Then the piece really goes no where. They talk to a couple of Black women. Oh, and they throw in an incorrect statistic about the number of Black men who marry non-Black women. The reporter says it's 14% of Black married men when actually the figure is about 6%.

Finally at the end of the piece they set Renee up with a professional Black guy, an attorney. Isn't that the kind of guy she said she wanted in the first place?

After the short date Renee says she likes him but she doubts his interest. And she seems right as he says that he always feels as if something better is just around the corner.

Seems to me the BBC reporter went out of her way to prove a point; that educated Black women have a hard time finding a suitable mate. This report might have actually been worthwhile had the reporter gathered several professional Black men and women in a social setting to see what would happen.

But I guess that might expose the fact that there really is no Black pathology involved in this. The truth of the matter is having a hard time finding a mate is just part of being human in a modern world.




Photos by: Cauquil Claude

Question de Jour: Why won't they speak up?

Black women are a very diverse group. There aren't many things I would say are absolutes about us. But one thing I know for sure is if the media and Black men started saying that there were no good Black women around we would speak up and loudly.

So I have to wonder why it is that Black men aren't speaking up. The media has been stuck on the lonely Black woman/ no good Black men thing for a very long time now. And I have yet to see an organized response to this from Black men.

Why is that?

I absolutely know that it's a myth that there are no good Black men. I happen to know quite a few good Black men. Smart, educated, healthy, never been arrested, etc. So when for instance ABC's Nightline does a show about the supposed lack of good Black men why was it that 600 Black women showed up but almost no Black men?


If 600 Black men were going to go on TV talking about the lack of good Black women you better believe there would be 600 Black woman there begging to differ.

So please help me here. Why aren't the good Black men out there standing up to these media attacks? What's going on?