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book awards"},{"term":"national poetry month"},{"term":"natural hair."},{"term":"ne-yo"},{"term":"networks"},{"term":"new babies"},{"term":"new books"},{"term":"new jersey"},{"term":"new shows"},{"term":"notebooks"},{"term":"nude photos"},{"term":"old age"},{"term":"oldest person alive"},{"term":"omar tyree"},{"term":"online media"},{"term":"opioids"},{"term":"over 50"},{"term":"painting"},{"term":"panama"},{"term":"parties"},{"term":"pharmaceuticals"},{"term":"phot"},{"term":"photo exhibits"},{"term":"photo shoots"},{"term":"photographers"},{"term":"physicists"},{"term":"pilots"},{"term":"planes"},{"term":"playlist"},{"term":"political activism"},{"term":"pollution"},{"term":"pop culture"},{"term":"poverty"},{"term":"pregnant"},{"term":"premieres"},{"term":"presidential elections"},{"term":"presidential race"},{"term":"prison industrial complex"},{"term":"prison reform"},{"term":"production deals"},{"term":"professions"},{"term":"pursuit of sexiness"},{"term":"q\u0026a"},{"term":"quilting"},{"term":"race"},{"term":"radio"},{"term":"raised fists"},{"term":"rally"},{"term":"rappers"},{"term":"ratings"},{"term":"raven-symoné"},{"term":"raynette turner"},{"term":"records"},{"term":"rehab"},{"term":"remix"},{"term":"report"},{"term":"restaurants"},{"term":"rock and Roll Hall of Fame"},{"term":"rock music"},{"term":"rolling stones"},{"term":"rom-coms"},{"term":"salvator aquino"},{"term":"sammus"},{"term":"sasheer zamata"},{"term":"satellites"},{"term":"sayhername"},{"term":"school supplies"},{"term":"science"},{"term":"self portraits"},{"term":"selfies"},{"term":"senegalese twists"},{"term":"sentencing"},{"term":"sexuality"},{"term":"shaun king"},{"term":"sheroes"},{"term":"shooting"},{"term":"shootings"},{"term":"shopping"},{"term":"short stories"},{"term":"singing"},{"term":"singles"},{"term":"slavery"},{"term":"small businesses"},{"term":"software engineers"},{"term":"special needs"},{"term":"spike lee"},{"term":"spoken word"},{"term":"star wars"},{"term":"state dinner"},{"term":"stationary"},{"term":"staycation"},{"term":"stephanie dorceant"},{"term":"storytelling"},{"term":"strings"},{"term":"students"},{"term":"stunts"},{"term":"stuntwoman"},{"term":"style"},{"term":"summer reading"},{"term":"supercentenarian"},{"term":"support black business"},{"term":"swim team"},{"term":"tamron Hall"},{"term":"teachers"},{"term":"teaching"},{"term":"temple university"},{"term":"the perfect guy"},{"term":"the view"},{"term":"theatre"},{"term":"theology"},{"term":"three fifths"},{"term":"tour dates"},{"term":"track and field"},{"term":"transgender women"},{"term":"treat yoself"},{"term":"trina"},{"term":"tuli art"},{"term":"tv films"},{"term":"tv series"},{"term":"twins"},{"term":"twists"},{"term":"unconventional beauty"},{"term":"unions"},{"term":"university"},{"term":"upcoming tour"},{"term":"viagra"},{"term":"victims"},{"term":"video"},{"term":"video game"},{"term":"videos"},{"term":"viral"},{"term":"visibility"},{"term":"voting"},{"term":"water colors"},{"term":"western"},{"term":"whiskey on the rocks tour"},{"term":"white supremacy."},{"term":"womanism"},{"term":"women athletes"},{"term":"women rappers"},{"term":"wondaland"},{"term":"workplace"},{"term":"wrongful death"},{"term":"yhebe design"},{"term":"yoga"},{"term":"young women athletes"},{"term":"zadie smith"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Culture "},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"The Culture is an entertainment and culture guide for women of the African Diaspora. We cover art, design, tech, literature, and music. Presented by For Harriet\n"},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/-\/magazines?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=8"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/search\/label\/magazines"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"6"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"8"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-1903589144275615092"},"published":{"$t":"2016-01-15T23:11:00.005-06:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-01-15T23:12:26.348-06:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kelly Rowland"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parents magazine"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Kelly Rowland Poses with Her Adorable Son for Parents Magazine"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg alt=\" photo Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016 2.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016%202.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nKelly Rowland is the epitome of a working mom. She's recording a new album and developing a show for a BET reality show that will search for the next girl group.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nKelly hasn't lost her fly. She posed on the February issue of Parents magazine with her beautiful 1-year-old baby boy, Titan.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E \u003C!-- Large --\u003E \u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"6852641998\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\"I was nervous that I didn't have the patience to be a good mom, because before Titan I had zero,\" Kelly told the magazine. \"My OCD had to go out the window. My living room looks like a freaking day care!\" She also described how having friends with kids, like longtime pal Beyoncé, made a world of difference in her new life as a mom, and that nothing melts her heart the way Titan's smile does.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\" photo Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016 1.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016%201.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E \u003C!-- Large --\u003E \u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"6852641998\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\" photo Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016 3.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/Kelly-Rowland-Parents-Magazine-Cover-February-2016%203.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/1903589144275615092\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2016\/01\/kelly-rowland-poses-with-her-adorable.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/1903589144275615092"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/1903589144275615092"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2016\/01\/kelly-rowland-poses-with-her-adorable.html","title":"Kelly Rowland Poses with Her Adorable Son for Parents Magazine"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-8642653565280212161"},"published":{"$t":"2015-03-17T10:11:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-03-17T10:12:14.495-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Essence"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kelly Rowland"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Kelly Rowland Poses With Her Beautiful Family for ESSENCE Magazine"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/i1290.photobucket.com\/albums\/b536\/forharriet\/For%20Harriet\/The%20Culture\/ESSENCE-Titan-Jewell-Weatherspoon-and-her-husband-Tim-Weatherspoon-Kelly-Rowland-April-Cover_zpshtk7e1r6.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nKelly Rowland is glowing on the cover of this month's ESSENCE magazine. She's posing with with her husband, Tim Weatherspoon, and her new baby Titan Jewell.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe year has been full of ups and downs for Kelly. Within months, she got married, had a baby and lost her mother. She told ESSENCE, \"My road to my happiness hasn't been an easy one. It hasn't been peachy all the time, but I am so, so happy.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript type=\"text\/javascript\"\u003E\n    google_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9450107725766363\";\n    google_ad_slot = \"4084857597\";\n    google_ad_width = 300;\n    google_ad_height = 250;\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C!-- Responsive 300x250 --\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cscript src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"\u003E\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/i1290.photobucket.com\/albums\/b536\/forharriet\/For%20Harriet\/The%20Culture\/kellyrowlandfamilypicture2_zpsxwndrolr.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/i1290.photobucket.com\/albums\/b536\/forharriet\/For%20Harriet\/The%20Culture\/kellywrowland7_zpsgxxnpy0e.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nKimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or \u003Ca class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimberlyNFoster\"\u003EFollow @KimberlyNFoster\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");\u003C\/script\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript type=\"text\/javascript\"\u003E\n    google_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9450107725766363\";\n    google_ad_slot = \"4084857597\";\n    google_ad_width = 300;\n    google_ad_height = 250;\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C!-- Responsive 300x250 --\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cscript src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"\u003E\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/8642653565280212161\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2015\/03\/kelly-rowland-poses-with-her-beautiful.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/8642653565280212161"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/8642653565280212161"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2015\/03\/kelly-rowland-poses-with-her-beautiful.html","title":"Kelly Rowland Poses With Her Beautiful Family for ESSENCE Magazine"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-3785290875754824217"},"published":{"$t":"2014-06-25T13:14:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-06-25T13:14:25.163-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"First Lady Michelle Obama"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"President Obama"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The President and First Lady Discuss Their Early Years of Juggling Career and Family in Parade"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/i1290.photobucket.com\/albums\/b536\/forharriet\/For%20Harriet\/The%20Culture\/obamasparade_zps46eb17f3.jpg\" width=\"610\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe President and First Lady's years of living relatively normal lives are one of the many things that connect them with so many Americans. They Ivy League grads don't come from money, and in a recent interview with Parade magazine, POTUS recalls the difficult years when he and his wife's student loans totaled more than their mortgage. Mrs. Obama also recounts the difficulties of being a working mom.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\n\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C!-- Shine - Sidebar --\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"5269751991\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 250px; width: 300px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\n\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/i1290.photobucket.com\/albums\/b536\/forharriet\/For%20Harriet\/The%20Culture\/obamasparade2_zpsd739c9a2.jpg\" width=\"610\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nHere's an excerpt:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote\u003E\nOne of your initiative’s priorities is fair pay—and equal pay for women. Mrs. Obama, when you were working in law, did you think you were being paid less than your male coworkers? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMO: You know, I didn’t really think about it. Because—and I think this is one of the challenges women face—we don’t think about salary enough. When I got hired in my firm, I was grateful. There wasn’t even a thought of negotiating at all. I thought I was there to do a good job.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nNow I realize that that’s one of the challenges that we have as women:  We don’t negotiate for ourselves. We don’t negotiate hard. And I realized that again later on when I had Malia, my first child. After a while, I asked for part-time work [at the University of Chicago]. And I did the same job, part time. Essentially, I just got paid less. That was the first time I realized I would never again work part time, because that’s not a good deal for women.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAs you, Mr. President, write in The Audacity of Hope, there were “strains” in your marriage during that period. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPO: Look, we had Malia, and then three years later we have Sasha. At that point, our student loans are still more than our mortgage. Michelle’s working full time. I have three jobs. There are stretches where I’ll be away for three days at a time. If the babysitter can’t make it, Michelle’s the one who’s got to scramble and figure it out.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nCourtesy of Obama for America\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\"What is best in me, I owe to her,\" the president (above, with his mother, Ann Dunham, in an undated photo) wrote of his single mom in Dreams From My Father. (Courtesy of Obama for America)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBecause she’s the mom or because she’s there?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPO: Because she’s the mom, but also because she’s there. If Malia or Sasha got sick, it was Michelle who would come home. There were times where we couldn’t always afford to provide things that would be helpful to Michelle to make time for herself. So, for example, I’d go work out. Michelle wouldn’t, because she felt, “I’m already away from the kids. If I take time for myself, then somehow maybe I’m not being a good mom.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSo there were arguments based on this.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPO: Look, parenting is the greatest joy in life, but it also creates a strain. And we were lucky. We knew families who, at the same time as they were going through this, were also dealing with an ailing parent.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nTalk about that. Part of the Working Family initiative is also about making sure people have access to paid family leave, whether to care for a child or a sick parent. Why is it important to have that time?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPO: Michelle and I were lucky because, as professionals, you generally have some flexibility built into the job. But what it made me think about was people who were on the clock. If you’re an hourly worker in most companies, and you say, “I’ve got to take three days off,” you may lose your job. At minimum, you’re losing income you can’t afford to lose. Michelle had an ailing dad when we were first dating; he had multiple sclerosis. She remembers the toll that took on the family.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMO: I took my last job [before my husband entered the White House] because of my boss’s reaction to my family situation. I didn’t have a babysitter, so I took Sasha right in there with me in her crib and her rocker. I was still nursing, so I was wearing my nursing shirt. I told my boss, “This is what I have: two small kids. My husband is running for the U.S. Senate. I will not work part time. I need flexibility. I need a good salary. I need to be able to afford babysitting. And if you can do all that, and you’re willing to be flexible with me because I will get the job done, I can work hard on a flexible schedule.” I was very clear. And he said yes to everything.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nYou should be the agent for every woman out there.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMO: That’s how I advise young women: Negotiate hard and know your worth.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\nDespite the difficulties she faced, Mrs. Obama was in a privileged position. Many women, particularly in the age of the dismantling of unions, \u0026nbsp;do not possess the bargaining power to make similar demands. But those who can should take heed to Mrs. Obama's words. Know your worth.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nRead the full interview \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/parade.condenast.com\/306214\/parade\/the-president-and-michelle-obama-on-work-family-and-juggling-it-all\/\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPhoto Credit: Miller Mobley for Parade\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Chr \/\u003E\nKimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or \u003Ca class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimberlyNFoster\"\u003EFollow @KimberlyNFoster\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");\u003C\/script\u003E "},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/3785290875754824217\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/06\/the-president-and-first-lady-discuss.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/3785290875754824217"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/3785290875754824217"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/06\/the-president-and-first-lady-discuss.html","title":"The President and First Lady Discuss Their Early Years of Juggling Career and Family in Parade"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-8571757230985845690"},"published":{"$t":"2014-05-07T09:09:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-05-07T09:09:42.084-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"media"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"publishing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Jet Magazine is Going Digital, Ending Print Publication"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg alt=\" photo kandi_burruss_jet_magazine_cover.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/The%20Culture\/kandi_burruss_jet_magazine_cover.jpg\" width=\"610\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/07\/business\/media\/jet-magazine-to-shift-to-digital-publishing-next-month.html\"\u003EThe New York Times\u003C\/a\u003E - Jet, the pioneering African-American weekly magazine that rose to prominence covering the civil rights movement, is expected to announce Wednesday morning that it will no longer publish a regular print edition, the latest in a growing list of periodicals avoiding print in favor of digital publications.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIts owner, Johnson Publishing Company, will move Jet to a largely digital format starting in June, delivered through its website and a paid subscription app. Last year, to cut costs, Jet reduced the weekly publication schedule of the digest-size magazine to every three weeks. Now there will only be an annual “best of Jet” print issue.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\n\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C!-- Shine In Post --\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"5082050395\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 468px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\nLinda Johnson Rice, chairwoman of Johnson Publishing, which also owns the cosmetics line Fashion Fair, positioned the move as a way to bring Jet into the modern age.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Almost 63 years ago, my father, John Johnson, named the publication Jet because, as he said in the first issue, ‘In the world today, everything is moving faster. There is more news and far less time to read it,’ “ Ms. Rice said. “He could not have spoken truer words. We are not saying goodbye to Jet, we are embracing the future as my father did in 1951.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIts June 2, 2014 issue.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIn moving to digital, Jet joins a number of magazines that have recently reduced or eliminated their print publications after sharp drops in print advertising revenue. Last month, Ladies’ Home Journal announced it would be moving to a quarterly newsstand-only print schedule and otherwise would be digital. New York magazine moved from a weekly to a biweekly print edition last month.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/07\/business\/media\/jet-magazine-to-shift-to-digital-publishing-next-month.html\"\u003EContinue reading at The New York Times\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Chr \/\u003E\nKimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or \u003Ca class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimberlyNFoster\"\u003EFollow @KimberlyNFoster\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");\u003C\/script\u003E "},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/8571757230985845690\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/05\/jet-magazine-is-going-digital-ending.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/8571757230985845690"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/8571757230985845690"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/05\/jet-magazine-is-going-digital-ending.html","title":"Jet Magazine is Going Digital, Ending Print Publication"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/The%20Culture\/th_kandi_burruss_jet_magazine_cover.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-7133883135766911431"},"published":{"$t":"2014-05-05T15:21:00.000-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-05-05T16:24:10.610-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Mara Brock Akil"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"profiles"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Mara Brock Akil: \"I'm Not Bitching. I'm Hiring.\""},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg alt=\" photo marabrockakil.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/The%20Culture\/marabrockakil.jpg\" width=\"610\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBusinessweek - Mara Brock Akil is not a complainer. “If I was an evangelist,” says the 43-year-old television producer, “I’d tell people: Stop bitching, start doing.” She’d been up until three o’clock in the morning working on scripts for the second season of her hit hour-long drama, Being Mary Jane. The show, starring Gabrielle Union as a television host with a messy love life, is BET’s first original scripted drama series. Being Mary Jane premièred to 4 million viewers last summer; that audience swelled to 5.8 million live-and-same-day viewers for the Feb. 25 finale—more than the numbers for the finales of HBO’s True Detective and Girls combined.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“I just don’t buy this,” Brock Akil says to Being Mary Jane’s six writers as she walks into the modernist Venice Beach (Calif.) writing loft she shares with her husband and partner, director Salim Akil. “I need another story outline first thing Monday.” All morning long, she’s been interrupted by calls about her other hit BET show, The Game, a half-hour sitcom set in the world of professional football. In its seventh season, The Game, co-created and produced with Kenny Smith Jr. and Kelsey Grammer, averages 3 million viewers a night, about the same as Tuesday-night broadcast successes such as New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBrock Akil’s shows trounce most of their competition in the ratings, becoming top Twitter (TWTR) trending topics every night they air, and she’s won prizes from just about every African American awards organization out there. But, as a black showrunner on a predominately black network, she hasn’t been accorded the same attention or respect as her industry peers. “I have noticed that,” Brock Akil says, winking good-naturedly. “A long time ago, I wasted a lot of energy on that stuff, and sometimes I got upset, but I got smarter.” Her gold bangles glint in the sunlight as she talks with her hands, as animated and quotable as a leading woman on one of her shows. “I mean, I’ve employed more people than just about anybody, so go ask those other people why they’re not doing it! Don’t put me in a place where it looks like I’m bitching. I’m not bitching. I’m hiring!”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\n\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C!-- Shine - Sidebar --\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"5269751991\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 250px; width: 300px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThis spring, BET will announce that it’s once again betting on Brock Akil by green-lighting her third series, The Startup, about young tech entrepreneurs. (“It’s like a young Entourage,” she says. “Young kids in college trying to do a startup, falling in love.”) “As a show creator, she has a gift for making a human and emotional connection between the screen and the viewer,” says Charlie Jordan Brookins, senior vice president for original programming at BET Networks (VIA). “And as a showrunner, she has a record of success that’s undeniable.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPerhaps because her success has often been overlooked, Brock Akil can quote her own stats. “Girlfriends had 172 episodes,” she says, referring to her breakout show. “We’ve already produced 130 episodes of The Game. We’re onto Season 2 of Being Mary Jane. And I feel like I’m just getting started. I want more. Let’s go.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nRaised in Kansas City, Mo., and educated at Northwestern University, Brock Akil began her career in the writers’ rooms of UPN’s Moesha and WB’s The Jamie Foxx Show. She made her name in 2000 by creating Girlfriends, a UPN and CW series about women who date football players—the sort of successful black women who were edited out of the frame of shows such as Sex and the City and who were, apparently, desperate to see their stories on-screen. Girlfriends ran for eight seasons; when the CW canceled it, Brock Akil and her infuriated fans were powerless.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n“Girlfriends was my first expression in the medium, my full voice, and it allowed me to document myself,” she says. “It was: I’m here, I deserve to be here, and I’m entitled to it.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/printer\/articles\/196783-mara-brock-akil-and-the-audience-tv-forgot\"\u003EContinue reading at Businessweek\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Chr p=\"\" \/\u003E\nKimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or \u003Ca class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimberlyNFoster\"\u003EFollow @KimberlyNFoster\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");\u003C\/script\u003E "},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/feeds\/7133883135766911431\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/05\/mara-bock-akil-im-not-bitching-im-hiring.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/7133883135766911431"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/5675981418905103524\/posts\/default\/7133883135766911431"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/theculture.forharriet.com\/2014\/05\/mara-bock-akil-im-not-bitching-im-hiring.html","title":"Mara Brock Akil: \"I'm Not Bitching. I'm Hiring.\""}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"For Harriet"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/09683917312535044896"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/The%20Culture\/th_marabrockakil.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5675981418905103524.post-5699172129167061845"},"published":{"$t":"2014-03-01T15:55:00.001-06:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-01-21T08:40:42.315-06:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"dialogue"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"magazines"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cimg alt=\" photo baldwin-lorde.jpg\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/i789.photobucket.com\/albums\/yy172\/thehlmn\/The%20Culture\/baldwin-lorde.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/mocada-museum.tumblr.com\/post\/73421979421\/revolutionary-hope-a-conversation-between-james\"\u003Erepublished\u003C\/a\u003E this conversation between iconic Black thinkers James Baldwin and Audre Lorde on their Tumblr page. The conversation took place at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and was was originally published in ESSENCE in 1984.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe dialogue reveals the importance of recognizing that shared racial histories cannot overshadow the divergent gendered histories between Black men and women.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: One of the dangers of being a Black American is being schizophrenic, and I mean ‘schizophrenic’ in the most literal sense. To be a Black American is in some ways to be born with the desire to be white. It’s a part of the price you pay for being born here, and it affects every Black person. We can go back to Vietnam, we can go back to Korea. We can go back for that matter to the First World War. We can go back to W.E.B. Du Bois – an honorable and beautiful man – who campaigned to persuade Black people to fight in the First World War, saying that if we fight in this war to save this country, our right to citizenship can never, never again be questioned – and who can blame him? He really meant it, and if I’d been there at that moment I would have said so too perhaps. Du Bois believed in the American dream. So did Martin. So did Malcolm. So do I. So do you. That’s why we’re sitting here.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E \u003C!-- Large --\u003E \u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"6852641998\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003EAL: I don’t, honey. I’m sorry, I just can’t let that go past. Deep, deep, deep down I know that dream was never mine. And I wept and I cried and I fought and I stormed, but I just knew it. I was Black. I was female. And I was out – out – by any construct wherever the power lay. So if I had to claw myself insane, if I lived I was going to have to do it alone. Nobody was dreaming about me. Nobody was even studying me except as something to wipe out.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: You are saying you do not exist in the American dream except as a nightmare.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: That’s right. And I knew it every time I opened Jet, too. I knew that every time I opened a Kotex box. I knew that every time I went to school. I knew that every time I opened a prayer book. I knew it, I just knew it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: It is difficult to be born in a place where you are despised and also promised that with endeavor – with this, with that, you know – you can accomplish the impossible. You’re trying to deal with the man, the woman, the child – the child of whichever sex – and he or she and your man or your woman has got to deal with the 24-hour-a-day facts of life in this country. We’re not going to fly off someplace else, you know, we’d better get through whatever that day is and still have each other and still raise children – somehow manage all of that. And this is 24 hours of every day, and you’re surrounded by all of the paraphernalia of safety: If you can strike this bargain here. If you can make sure your armpits are odorless. Curl your hair. Be impeccable. Be all the things that the American public says you should do, right? And you do all those things – and nothing happens really. And what is much worse than that, nothing happens to your child either.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Even worse than the nightmare is the blank. And Black women are the blank. I don’t want to break all this down, then have to stop at the wall of male\/female division. When we admit and deal with difference; when we deal with the deep bitterness; when we deal with the horror of even our different nightmares; when we turn them and look at them, it’s like looking at death: hard but possible. If you look at it directly without embracing it, then there is much less that you can ever be made to fear.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I agree.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Well, in the same way when we look at our differences and not allow ourselves to be divided, when we own them and are not divided by them, that is when we will be able to move on. But we haven’t reached square one yet.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I’m not sure of that. I think the Black sense of male and female is much more sophisticated than the western idea. I think that Black men and women are much less easily thrown by the question of gender or sexual preference – all that jazz. At least that is true of my experience.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yea, but let’s remove ourselves from merely a reactive position – i.e., Black men and women reacting to what’s out there. While we are reacting to what’s out there, we’re also dealing between ourselves – and between ourselves there are power differences that come down…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Oh, yes…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Truly dealing with how we live, recognizing each other’s differences, is something that hasn’t happened…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Differences and samenesses.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Differences and samenesses. But in a crunch, when all our asses are in the sling, it looks like it is easier to deal with the samenesses. When we deal with sameness only, we develop weapons that we use against each other when the differences become apparent. And we wipe each other out – Black men and women can wipe each other out – far more effectively than outsiders do.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: That’s true enough.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: And our blood is high, our furies are up. I mean, it’s what Black women do to each other, Black men do to each other, and Black people do to each other. We are in the business of wiping each other out in one way or the other – and essentially doing our enemy’s work.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: That’s quite true.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: We need to acknowledge those power differences between us and see where they lead us. An enormous amount of energy is being taken up with either denying the power differences between Black men and women or fighting over power differences between Black men and women or killing each other off behind them. I’m talking about Black women’s blood flowing in the streets – and how do we get a 14-year-old boy to know I am not the legitimate target of his fury? The boot is on both of our necks. Let’s talk about getting it off. My blood will not wash out your horror. That’s what I’m interested in getting across to adolescent Black boys.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThere are little Black girl children having babies. But this is not an immaculate conception, so we’ve got little Black boys who are making babies, too. We have little Black children making little Black children. I want to deal with that so our kids will not have to repeat that waste of themselves.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I hear you – but let me backtrack, for better or worse. You know, for whatever reason and whether it’s wrong or right, for generations men have come into the world, either instinctively knowing or believing or being taught that since they were men they in one way or another had to be responsible for the women and children, which means the universe.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Mm-hm.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I don’t think there’s any way around that.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Any way around that now?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I don’t think there’s any way around that fact.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: If we can put people on the moon and we can blow this whole planet up, if we can consider digging 18 inches of radioactive dirt off of the Bikini atolls and somehow finding something to do with it – if we can do that, we as Black cultural workers can somehow begin to turn that stuff around – because there’s nobody anymore buying ‘cave politics’ – ‘Kill the mammoth or else the species is extinct.’ We have moved beyond that. Those little scrubby-ass kids in the sixth grade – I want those Black kids to know that brute force is not a legitimate way of dealing across sex difference. I want to set up some different paradigms.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Yea, but there’s a real difference between the way a man looks at the world…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yes, yes…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: And the way a woman looks at the world. A woman does know much more than a man.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: And why? For the same reason Black people know what white people are thinking: because we had to do it for our survival…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: All right, all right…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: We’re finished being bridges. Don’t you see? It’s not Black women who are shedding Black men’s blood on the street – yet. We’re not cleaving your head open with axes. We’re not shooting you down. We’re saying, “Listen, what’s going on between us is related to what’s going on between us and other people,” but we have to solve our own shit at the same time as we’re protecting our Black asses, because if we don’t, we are wasting energy that we need for joint survival.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I’m not even disagreeing – but if you put the argument in that way, you see, a man has a certain story to tell, too, just because he is a man…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yes, yes, and it’s vital that I be alive and able to listen to it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Yes. Because we are the only hope we have. A family quarrel is one thing; a public quarrel is another. And you and I, you know – in the kitchen, with the kids, with each other or in bed – we have a lot to deal with, with each other, but we’ve got to know what we’re dealing with. And there is no way around it. There is no way around it. I’m a man. I am not a woman.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: That’s right, that’s right.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: No one will turn me into a woman. You’re a woman and you’re not a man. No one will turn you into a man. And we are indispensable for each other, and the children depend on us both.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: It’s vital for me to be able to listen to you, to hear what is it that defines you and for you to listen to me, to hear what is it that defines me – because so long as we are operating in that old pattern, it doesn’t serve anybody, and it certainly hasn’t served us.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I know that. What I really think is that neither of us has anything to prove, at least not in the same way, if we weren’t in the North American wilderness. And the inevitable dissension between brother and sister, between man and woman – let’s face it, all those relations which are rooted in love also are involved in this quarrel. Because our real responsibility is to endlessly redefine each other. I cannot live without you, and you cannot live without me – and the children can’t live without us.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: But we have to define ourselves for each other. We have to redefine ourselves for each other because no matter what the underpinnings of the distortion are, the fact remains that we have absorbed it. We have all absorbed this sickness and ideas in the same way we absorbed racism. It’s vital that we deal constantly with racism, and with white racism among Black people – that we recognize this as a legitimate area of inquiry. We must also examine the ways that we have absorbed sexism and heterosexism. These are the norms in this dragon we have been born into – and we need to examine these distortions with the same kind of openness and dedication that we examine racism…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: You use the word ‘racism’…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: The hatred of Black, or color…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: - but beneath the word ‘racism’ sleeps the word ‘safety.’ Why is it important to be white or Black?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Why is it important to be a man rather than a woman?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: In both cases, it is assumed that it is safer to be white than to be Black. And it’s assumed that it is safer to be a man than to be a woman. These are both masculine assumptions. But those are the assumptions that we’re trying to overcome or to confront…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E \u003C!-- Large --\u003E \u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"6852641998\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003EAL: To confront, yeah. The vulnerability that lies behind those masculine assumptions is different for me and you, and we must begin to look at that…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Yes, yes…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: And the fury that is engendered in the denial of that vulnerability – we have to break through it because there are children growing up believe that it is legitimate to shed female blood, right? I have to break through it because those boys really think that the sign of their masculinity is impregnating a sixth grader. I have to break through it because of that little sixth-grade girl who believes that the only thing in life she has is what lies between her legs…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Yeah, but we’re not talking now about men and women. We’re talking about a particular society. We’re talking about a particular time and place. You were talking about the shedding of Black blood in the streets, but I don’t understand –\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Okay, the cops are killing the men and the men are killing the women. I’m talking about rape. I’m talking about murder.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I’m not disagreeing with you, but I do think you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m not trying to get the Black man off the hook – or Black women, for that matter – but I am talking about the kingdom in which we live.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yes, I absolutely agree; the kingdom in which these distortions occur has to be changed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Something happens to the man who beats up a lady. Something happens to the man who beats up his grandmother. Something happens to the junkie. I know that very well. I walked the streets of Harlem; I grew up there, right? Now you know it is not the Black cat’s fault who sees me and tries to mug me. I got to know that. It’s his responsibility but it’s not his fault. That’s a nuance. UI got to know that it’s not him who is my enemy even when he beats up his grandmother. His grandmother has got to know. I’m trying to say one’s got to see what drove both of us into those streets. We be both from the same track. Do you see what I mean? I’ve come home myself, you know, wanting to beat up anything in sight- but Audre, Audre…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: I’m here, I’m here…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I agree with you. I see exactly what you mean and it hurts me at least as much as it hurts you. But how to maneuver oneself past this point – how not to lose him or her who may be in what is in effect occupied territory. That is really what the Black situation is in this country. For the ghetto, all that is lacking is barbed wire, and when you pen people up like animals, the intention is to debase them and you have debased them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Jimmy, we don’t have an argument\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I know we don’t.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: But what we do have is a real disagreement about your responsibility not just to me but to my son and to our boys. Your responsibility to him is to get across to him in a way that I never will be able to because he did not come out of my body and has another relationship to me. Your relationship to him as his farther is to tell him I’m not a fit target for his fury.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Okay, okay…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: It’s so entrenched in him that it’s part of him as much as his Blackness is.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: All right, all right…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: I can’t do it. You have to.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: All right, I accept – the challenge is there in any case. It never occurred to me that it would be otherwise. That’s absolutely true. I simply want to locate where the danger is…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yeah, we’re at war…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: We are behind the gates of a kingdom which is determined to destroy us.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Yes, exactly so. And I’m interested in seeing that we do not accept terms that will help us destroy each other. And I think one of the ways in which we destroy each other is by being programmed to knee-jerk on our differences. Knee-jerk on sex. Knee-jerk on sexuality…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: I don’t quite know what to do about it, but I agree with you. And I understand exactly what you mean. You’re quite right. We get confused with genders – you know, what the western notion of woman is, which is not necessarily what a woman is at all. It’s certainly not the African notion of what a woman is. Or even the European notion of what a woman is. And there’s certainly not standard of masculinity in this country which anybody can respect. Part of the horror of being a Black American is being trapped into being an imitation of an imitation.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: I can’t tell you what I wished you would be doing. I can’t redefine masculinity. I can’t redefine Black masculinity certainly. I am in the business of redefining Black womanness. You are in the business of redefining Black masculinity. And I’m saying, ‘Hey, please go on doing it,’ because I don’t know how much longer I can hold this fort, and I really feel that Black women are holding it and we’re beginning to hold it in ways that are making this dialogue less possible.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Really? Why do you say that? I don’t feel that at all. It seems to me you’re blaming the Black man for the trap he’s in.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: I’m not blaming the Black man; I’m saying don’t shed my blood. I’m not blaming the Black man. I’m saying if my blood is being shed, at some point I’m gonna have a legitimate reason to take up a knife and cut your damn head off, and I’m not trying to do it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: If you drive a man mad, you’ll turn him into a beast – it has nothing to do with his color.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: If you drive a woman insane, she will react like a beast too. There is a larger structure, a society with which we are in total and absolute war. We live in the mouth of a dragon, and we must be able to use each other’s forces to fight it together, because we need each other. I am saying that in our joint battle we have also developed some very real weapons, and when we turn them against each other they are even more bloody, because we know each other in a particular way. When we turn those weapons against each other, the bloodshed is terrible. Even worse, we are doing this in a structure where we are already embattled. I am not denying that. It is a family discussion I’m having now. I’m not laying blame. I do not blame Black men for what they are. I’m asking them to move beyond. I do not blame Black men; what I’m saying is, we have to take a new look at the ways in which we fight our joint oppression because if we don’t, we’re gonna be blowing each other up. We have to begin to redefine the terms of what woman is, what man is, how we relate to each other.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: But that demands redefining the terms of the western world…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: And both of us have to do it; both of us have to do it…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: But you don’t realize that in this republic the only real crime is to be a Black man?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: No, I don’t realize that. I realize the only crime is to be Black. I realize the only crime is to be Black, and that includes me too.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: A Black man has a prick, they hack it off. A Black man is a ****** when he tries to be a model for his children and he tries to protect his women. That is a principal crime in this republic. And every Black man knows it. And every Black woman pays for it. And every Black child. How can you be so sentimental as to blame the Black man for a situation which has nothing to do with him?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ccenter\u003E\u003Cscript async=\"\" src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E \u003C!-- Large --\u003E \u003Cins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9450107725766363\" data-ad-slot=\"6852641998\" style=\"display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;\"\u003E\u003C\/ins\u003E \u003Cscript\u003E\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/center\u003EAL: You still haven’t come past blame. I’m not interested in blame, I’m interested in changing…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: May I tell you something? May I tell you something? I might be wrong or right.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: I don’t know – tell me.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Do you know what happens to a man-?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: How can I know what happens to a man?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Do you know what happens to a man when he’s ashamed of himself when he can’t find a job? When his socks stink? When he can’t protect anybody? When he can’t do anything? Do you know what happens to a man when he can’t face his children because he’s ashamed of himself? It’s not like being a woman…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: No, that’s right. Do you know what happens to a woman who gives birth, who puts that child out there and has to go out and hook to feed it? Do you know what happens to a woman who goes crazy and beats her kids across the room because she’s so full of frustration and anger? Do you know what that is? Do you know what happens to a lesbian who sees her woman and her child beaten on the street while six other guys are holding her? Do you know what that feels like?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: Mm-hm.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: Well then, in the same way you know how a woman feels, I know how a man feels, because it comes down to human beings being frustrated and distorted because we can’t protect the people we love. So now let’s start –\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nJB: All right, okay…\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAL: - let’s start with that and deal.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nEssence Magazine, 1984\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003ERelated:\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.forharriet.com\/2014\/02\/5-books-by-audre-lorde-everyone-should.html\"\u003E5 Books by Audre Lorde Everyone Should Read\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Chr \/\u003EKimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. 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