A Black Woman Speaks... of White Womanhood... of White Supremacy... of Peace
Beulah Richardson1951

A Black Woman Speaks. . . Of White Womanhood Of White Supremacy Of Peace
It is right that I a woman black,should speak of white womanhood. My fathers my brothers my husbands my sons die for it; because of it.And their blood chilled in electric chairs,stopped by hangman's noose,cooked by lynch mobs' fire,spilled by white supremacist mad desire to kill for profit,gives me that right.I would that I could speak of white womanhoodas it will and should bewhen it stands tall in full equality.But then, womanhood will be womanhoodvoid of color and of class,and all necessity for my speaking thus will be past.Gladly past.But now, since 'tis deemed a thing apartsupreme,I must in searching honesty reporthow it seems to me.White womanhood stands in bloodied skirtand willing slaveryreaching out adulterous handkilling mine and crushing me.What then is this superior thingthat in order to be sustained must needs feed upon my flesh?How came this horror to be?Let's look to history.They said, the white supremacist saidthat you were better than me,that your fair brow should never know the sweat of slavery.They lied.White womanhood too is enslaved,the difference is degree.They brought me here in chains.They brought you here willing slaves to man.You, shiploads of women each filled with hopethat she might win with ruby lip and saucy curland bright and flashing eyehim to wife who had the largest tender.Remember?And they sold you here even as they sold me.My sisters, there is no room for mockery.If they counted my teeththey did appraise your thighand sold you to the highest bidderthe same as I.And you did not fight for your right to choosewhom you would wedbut for whatever bartered pricethat was the legal tenderyou were sold to a stranger's bedin a stranger landremember?And you did not fight.Mind you, I speak not mockinglybut I fought for freedom,I'm fighting now for our unity.We are women all,and what wrongs you murders meand eventually marks your graveso we share a mutual death at the hand of tyranny.They trapped me with the chain and gun.They trapped you with lying tongue.For, 'less you see that faultthat male villainythat robbed you of name, voice and authority,that murderous greed that wasted you and me,he, the white supremacist, fixed your minds with poisonous thought:"white skin is supreme."and therewith bought that monstrous changeexiling you to things.Changed all that nature had ill you wrought of gentle usefulness,abolishing your spring.Tore out your heart,set your good apart from all that you could say,think,feel,know to be right.And you did not fight,but set your minds fast on my slaverythe better to endure your own.'Tis truemy pearls were beads of sweatwrung from weary bodies' pain,instead of rings upon my handsI wore swollen, bursting veins.My ornaments were the wip-lash's scarmy diamond, perhaps, a tear.Instead of paint and powder on my faceI wore a solid mask of fear to see my blood so spilled.And you, women seeingspoke no protestbut cuddled down in your pink slaveryand thought somehow my wasted bloodconfirmed your superiority.Because your necklace was of goldyou did not notice that it throttled speech.Because diamond rings bedecked your handsyou did not regret their dictated idleness.Nor could you see that the platinum braceletswhich graced your wrists were chainsbinding you fast to economic slavery.And though you claimed your husband's namestill could not command his fidelity.You bore him sons.I bore him sons.No, not willingly.He purchased you.He raped me,I fought!But you fought neither for yourselves nor me.Sat trapped in your superiorityand spoke no reproach.Consoled your outrage with an added diamond brooch.Oh, God, how great is a woman's fearwho for a stone, a cold, cold stonewould not defend honor, love or dignity!You bore the damning mockery of your marriageand heaped your hate on me,a woman too,a slave more so.And when your husband disowned his seedthat was my sonand sold him apart from meyou felt avenged.Understand:I was not your enemy in this,I was not the source of your distress.I was your friend, I fought.But you would not help me fightthinking you helped only me.Your deceived eyes seeing only my slaveryaided your own decay.Yes, they condemned me to deathand they condemned you to decay.Your heart whisked away,consumed in hate,used up in idlenessplaying yet the lady's partestranged to vanity.It is justice to you to say your fear equalled your tyranny.You were afraid to nurse your younglest fallen breast offend your master's sightand he should flee to firmer loveliness.And so you passed them, your children, on to me.Flesh that was your flesh and blood that was your blooddrank the sustenance of life from me.And as I gave suckle I knew I nursed my own child's enemy.I could have lied,told you your child was fed till it was dead of hunger.But I could not find the heart to kill orphaned innocence.For as it fed, it smiled and burped and gurgled with contentand as for color knew no difference.Yes, in that first whileI kept your sons and daughters alive.But when they grew strong in blood and bonethat was of my milkyoutaught them to hate me.Put your decay in their hearts and upon their lipsso that strength that was of myselfturned and spat upon me,despoiled my daughters, and killed my sons.You know I speak true.Though this is not true for all of you.When I bestirred myself for freedomand brave Harriet led the waysome of you found heart and played a partin aiding my escape.And when I made my big push for freedomyour sons fought at my sons' side,Your husbands and brothers too fell in that battlewhen Crispus Attucks died.It's unfortunate that you acted not in the way of justicebut to preserve the Unionand for dear sweet pity's sake;Else how came it to be with me as it is today?You abhorred slaveryyet loathed equality.I would that the poor among you could have seenthrough the schemeand joined hands with me.Then, we being the majority, could long ago have rescuedour wasted lives.But no.The rich, becoming richer, could be contentwhile yet the poor had only the pretense of superiorityand sought through murderous brutalityto convince themselves that what was false was true.So with KKK and fiery crossand bloodied appetitesset about to prove that "white is right"forgetting their poverty.Thus the white supremacist used your skinsto perpetuate slavery.And woe to me.Woe to Willie McGee.Woe to the seven men of Martinsville.And woe to you.It was no mistake that your naked body on an Esquire calendarannounced the date, May Eighth.This is your fate if you do not wake to fight.They will use your naked bodies to sell their waresthough it be hate, Coca Cola or rape.When a white mother disdained to teach her childrenthis doctrine of hate,but taught them instead of peaceand respect for all men's dignitythe courts of law did legislatethat they be taken from herand sent to another state.To make a Troy Hawkins of the little girland a killer of the little boy!No, it was not for the womanhood of this motherthat Willie McGee diedbut for a depraved, enslaved, adulterous womanwhose lustful demands denied,lied and killed what she could not possess.Only three months before another such woman liedand seven black men shuddered and gave up their lives.These women were upheld in these bloody deedsby the president of this nation,thus putting the official seal on the fateof white womanhood within these United States.This is what they plan for you.This is the depravity they would reduce you to.Death for meand worse than death for you.What will you do?Will you fight with me?White supremacy is your enemy and mine.So be careful when you talk with me.Remind me not of my slavery, I know it wellbut rather tell me of your own.Remember, you have never known me.You've been busy seeing meas white supremacist would have me be,and I will be myself.Free!My aim is full equality.I would usurp their plan!Justicepeaceand plentyfor every man, woman and childwho walks the earth.This is my fight!If you will fight with me then take my handand the hand of Rosa Ingram, and Rosalee McGee,and as we set about our planlet our wholehearted fight be:PEACE IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS EQUALITY.