Note from BBT: I know that sometimes my posts can get to be pretty long and wordy. But sometimes a post that’s short, sweet and gets right to the point can be just as or even more provocative. That’s the case today.
We know that March 8th is annually celebrated as International Women’s Day, but as with any holiday or perspective on history, we must ALWAYS look at the other side. When we think of Independence Day in the US on July 4th and in Brazil on September 7th, we must ask, what was the condition of black people in these countries in 1776 and 1822? Well, on both dates, Africans in both those countries were still in bondage, so what was really there to celebrate for them? We could ask this very question with several dates in history and as such we must do the same with March 8th in history.
The reflection below is courtesy of the negros_atitudes Instagram page. And just so you know, as I’ve pointed out in numerous posts, Brazil enslaved more than ten times more Africans than the United States. Slavery played and continues to play an enormous role on the present, the psyche and soul of the nation, as we will once again see in upcoming posts. All of the images featured below are taken from Brazilian novelas (soap operas) set in the slavery era.
HAPPY WHITE WOMEN’S DAY
Black woman, did you know that this day does not belong to you?
“March 8 is the international day of the WHITE woman. It is said that on March 8, 1857, the date that marks the so-called international women’s day, a group of female workers went on strike in New York and, to sum it up, they suffered repression and some died.
It so happens that on March 8, 1857, I was still a slave. (Just to remind you, abolition in the US was in 1863. In Brazil 1888). This means that our sisters were being sold as a piece of anything. Probably slaves to the families of many of these super revolutionary white women strikers.
As I always say, white women have their problems, but none is more serious than ours: we have an entire people to be rehabilitated in absolutely ALL aspects. They talk so much about emancipation, they can solve their problems by themselves, can’t they? They are already grown up.
So, I’ll warn you in advance: don’t give me a happy Women’s Day, otherwise I’ll think you’re an out-of-touch person who doesn’t know your history (sometimes it’s necessary to speak harshly, but there is affection in this harshness). My day is July 31st, Dia da Mulher Afrikana (Afrikan Women’s Day).
In memory of all those who perished, the least we can do is to know and honor our history, not falling for any European and Euro-descendant chaos. Our main, primordial and first reference is and should be Africa, on the continent or in the diaspora. We owe it to those who lost their lives for us to be here today.”
Source: negros_atitudes Instagram page
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