Soul Surfing: Must Read Blogs 6.21.10

Shouldn’t this man be praised for getting the help that he obviously needed? Why is he being mocked and made the brunt of jokes? Was the shout out unexpected, yes. But it should not be shamed. The amount of courage and bravery it takes to admit that you need mental health assistance and to get it is incredible. It’s no easy feat. Black men, especially, are the least likely to seek treatment for mental illness. Does this mean that they are the least likely to have a mental illness in their lifetime? No. It simply means that they don’t get the help they need. If the reaction to Artest’s confession is any indication, I can’t say that I’m shocked.

In Praise of Ron Artest | Bassey's World

From the moment our freedom and dignity were taken from us, we have struggled towards physical and emotional emancipation; in return we have been lynched, raped, beaten, economically destroyed, silenced, and "othered". We have had our children taken from us, and watched sadly as their childhood was robbed from them to elevate Whiteness. In many of our communities there is a distinct lack of hope, and far too many have sought salvation in the needle. This has left some of us lost and bereft of hope -- and yet through all of this, Whiteness can still demand that we provide a solution to salve its conscience.

What Are You Doing to Elevate My Black Body? | Womanist Musings

Here’s the thing: if you’re going to go around erasing survivors, it’s pretty difficult to erase only the ones you want to. You can’t come up with a good reason why male rape survivors don’t count without also erasing some women rape survivors or survivors of other genders. If it’s about the rapist having oppressive power based in gender over the victim, you erase women who have been raped by women or by people of non-binary genders. If it’s about penises, you erase women who have penises, men who don’t, and victims who were raped with something other than a penis. If it’s about men having so much power in society and you just being understandably really angry about that, it’s impossible to make a non-oppressive argument that white rape survivors, straight rape survivors, cis rape survivors, abled rape survivors, and so on, shouldn’t also be erased.

Rape, Male Victims, and Why We Need to Care | The Curvature

Children are hammered daily with images that glorify the degradation of women. Talk of strippers, the tricks they perform with their bodies and showering strippers with cash is prevalent in much of today’s popular music. The raunchy, adult-themed songs are often supported by even raunchier videos that really up the ante. The fight to keep children from being subjected to these over-sexualized images is hard enough. I can’t fathom why a mother would want to thrust her children into this fuckery rather than protect them from it.

Where the Cash At? In Mama's Pants. | KayRenee - Reality Served Raw

I actually had someone tell me I was "rubbing it in" that I was raised in a two parent household with a good father. Um, I still miss my dad. I was trying to get through the day without weeping buckets. I didn't realize that it was some sort of competition: My dad is better than your dad? Really, after all these years? We didn't leave that behind in pre-school?

So...some folks aren't feeling Father's Day | BougieLand