I was on Twitter this morning and stumbled across the blog of a younger sista, proudly proclaiming that today is Happy Black Girl Day. Now at first I wanted to laugh, after all do we really need a Happy Black Girl Day? However as I thought about the media portrayals of Black women, we are hoes, jezebels, mammy’s, bad Mamas, walking vectors of sexually transmitted diseases, and the list of negatives go on.
Yes! We need a Happy Black Girl Day, a time when our lives are nor dissected for the masses. We need a day that can celebrate the joy in being a Black Girl. (no matter what your age for the purposes of this well-meaning day, its girl, but not as a pejorative). A day where we celebrate all that is good and positive with us and we share that joy with the world. Hell if you have a Black Girl in your life, you can celebrate too by being positive.
Happy Black Girl Day is to be celebrated the second Wed of every month, I think the traditional hump day is a great time to celebrate. After all if Wednesdays feel sucky to the average Joe/Jane, how the hell do you think it feels when you are a Black woman? So enough with negativity and let us enjoy a beautiful day.
Happy Black Girl Day! Tell me what you are doing and thinking that will make this a happy day for you.
This may also sound controversial: when Lincoln freed the slaves after the civil war, Darwin published his book ‘Survival of the Fittest’. In his book, it said that black people cannot mature past an 11yo because of the ‘brain shape’ I believe may have increased animosity against our people and caused the ‘reconstruction’ and ‘jim crow’ movements to take over.DARWIN AND LINCOLDN WERE BORN ON THE SAME DAY Feb 12, 1806
I beg to differ about last names: slaves did NOT have last names and couldn’t. The reason we have last names today is because, after slavery, we started taking last names(like Freeman) for instance,or presidents names. Every Washington, unless proved otherwise is usually a black person. They (we) took his name because he was the ‘father of the country’.Also, many Europeans ‘americanized’ their names as well when they came to Ellis island NY
I am a black girl make that a brown girl because I have never in my life seen a black or white girl in my entire 58 years of living out loud! and very happily as a black/brown girl every day of my happy Brown life. It is the white Europeans that once owned our ancestors that first corned us with titles like “Girl” “Black” , Darky. Coon, Spook, “Nappy head A__ __ Nigger” ,” Colored Folks”, “Boy” , “Jigger boo” ….etc
the list can go on with the titles given to Brown woman/people. Your Last name and my last name is not even ours, the last name that we have are the name of the European that was given to our ancestors that were owned as slaves by them. As a Brown woman/person/black person II celebrate this Black/brown woman every day of my brown life not as a girl, as a woman. I would not mind coming together with my Brown sisters on a blog where we can talk, share, celebrate our live as Brown people every day. and where we in our local area can get together and educate each other with our own personalized and shared Brown strengths. HI, MY NAME IS EVELYN AND I AM BROWN SISTER EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE AND ONE DAY OUT OF A MONTH, WEEK, OR A YEAR WILL NOT BE SUFFICIENT ENOUGH OF ME SO TAKE YOUR ONE DAY , FOR I PRAY THAT ONE DAY WILL MEET YOUR DAILY NEEDS. Our ancestor picked cotton every day not one day out of a month, a week or a year?
What did I do today Wednesday, May 12th 2010 to Celebrate my Brownness/Blackness? I got down on my knees and thanked my God and creator for this day and then checked my e mail and found you, my brown sister working on life it self for the betterment of Black/Brown sista’s every where, Yes ! I celebrate with you, this day and every day. I am placing your comment and my answer on my face book along with directions to this blog here at blackgirlinmaine’s web blog. If this is not ok let me know and I will just delet it. Be it GOD’s will I will rise again tomorrow and get with you on a another day of celebration of Brown/black woman day. You do know that we brown women come in all shades. Baby don’t let any one call you a girl? Cotton alone took the girl out of us a long time ago. we come into this world and a brown/black woman child at birth.
Your Sista not in the flesh but in our brown souls
Evelyn Murray, Sole Porprietor
Evelyn’s Ordinary People Greeting Card Portraits face book
http://www.evelynsgreetingcard.com web domain