My President is Black...and a Feminist

Imagine strolling into a Borders during your lunch break. You start perusing the magazine rack, when a copy of Ms. Magazine catches your eye....with Barack Obama on the cover.

from Feministe:

Obama has reportedly self-identified as a feminist, and has the legislative record to back it up. Is he a perfect feminist, or a perfect progressive? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Is he going to disappoint us over and over? Yeah, he's already started. But he's still pretty damned good, especially for a mainstream, center-left politician elected to the highest office, and I don't really see the point in kicking him out of the club just yet.

I was just as thrilled as Jen was when I saw this. It means that perhaps we are moving away from the idea that only women can be feminists, and is placing women and girls' rights at the forefront of policy perhaps.

But more importantly, the image of a Black male feminist is strikingly powerful. It is my belief that many Black men are misogynist and sexist without really knowing it. In our homes, we love our sons and raise our daughters. I grew up on hip hop, filled with misogynistic lyrics and ideals. Just like there are many Black women who would not label themselves a feminist, there are even more Black men who treat the term like it's a four-letter word. When you have our first Black President embracing the idea of being a feminist, it shows us a new lens: that Black men, too, can have a profound devotion to women's rights and gender equality.

As for the idea of a perfect feminist--well, good luck finding one. None of us are "perfect" or "true" feminists, because the spectrum of possibility for feminist ideals and beliefs are so broad. For instance, I consider myself what Alice Walker would call a womanist:

the black folk expression of mothers to female children, 'You acting womanish,' i.e. like a woman ... usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous, or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered 'good' for one ... [A womanist is also] a woman who loves other women sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women's culture ... and women's strength ... committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist ... Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

Taken from In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Part of womanism takes into account the the reconciliation of motherhood and and the Black family and also the need to fight for equality in a male dominated world. With the Obamas as a strong Black family unit, I wonder if either Barack or Michelle Obama are actually more in line with womanist ideals.

Sophomore year I took a class with Kip Lornell, the husband of NOW President Kim Gandy-Lornell. One day, he came to class wearing a t-shirt that says "this is what a feminist looks like."

One of the guys in the class scoffed and said "Dude, you're a feminist?"

Kip replied, "Why, yes. What, you thought you had to be a woman to do that?'

Indeed. bell hooks was right. Feminism truly is for everybody.