"Whether you have a Ph.D., or no D, we're in this bag together. And whether you're from Morehouse or Nohouse, we're still in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men -- this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves -- but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings in our sick society."

~Fannie Lou Hamer


I am a feminist.  Period.  A feminist.

And while we are in the labeling business, let me give a few more labels about me.

I am an educator.  I am a friend.  I am a daughter.  I am a sister.  I am a woman (duh).  And here comes the biggest, baddest, betcha didn't see this one coming.....I am a WIFE.

Oh yeah.  I am a wife.  Some man, and not just some man, a strong, educated man, chose to marry this card-carrying feminist.  And before you get into wondering what type of marriage we have, let me tell you that it is stable, happy, and full of love and submission.

The reason I bring this up because each of our lives are a series of labels that people cast upon us or sometimes that we cast upon ourselves.  A long time ago, I decided to add the label feminist to my growing list and in the process received flack and grief from others.  Instantly, people started checking to see if I was wearing a bra, and just knew that I was a ball-busting woman that would never get married because I despised men, specifically black men too much. 

To this I reveal another one of my labels: I am a Daddy's Girl. 

I do not hate men.  I never have and my goal is to never hate them. 

In today's society, we have a lot of female ball-busters.  Not feminists, ball-busters.  I have no desire to be politically correct and say "men-haters" so lets just call these women what they are. There is an epidemic emerging of women that love step on the ego, spirit, and nerves of every man around them. 

Contrary to popular labels, these women are not feminists.  If you examine the true definition of a feminist you will find that a feminist is merely a person that believes in equal and fair rights for all people and that no woman be judge or disenfranchised on the grounds of her gender. 

Go up to your nearby ball-buster, and when she gives you a moment to speak, ask her if she is a feminist.  Her response will most likely be no but if by chance she says yes, ask her for the definition. 

(Insert blank stare)

Most likely, you will not receive a solid definition.

I say all of this to say, many things.  The first being, kill the label sterotypes.  Okay, I am a feminist, but I still stopped while writing this blog to get my husband a drink of water from downstairs.  Would a ball-buster do that? We, feminists get a bad rap.

The second message in my madness refers back to Ms. Hamer's quote.  We as black people spend SOOOO much time pointing the fingering, blaming others for where we are but we never take the time to realize that the blame game leads to destruction.  Destruction of the self, the home, the race, and the community.  We are slowly but surely decaying into a group of finger-pointers, whiners, and ball-busters. 

Light-skin. Dark-skin. Rich. Poor. Bougie. Uppity. Ghetto. Urban. Man. Woman. Baby Mama.  Baby Daddy.

Lets do away with this.  Let us not dwell on the invidiual labels that continue to divide us, but instead focus on the one label that can potentially encompass everyone: I am the people. 

If you do it, I will even put the fire extinguisher to my bras and cook dinner for my husband.  For a while, we just need to wear one label.

I am the people.