blinkpink:

[Image description: Photoset of pictures taken at sunset on a second-story back porch. On the porch is a black woman in her early twenties, wearing a blue flower-print sundress, and two black children—a toddler boy in a lime-green shirt, and a preschool-age girl in a pink shirt and khaki shorts. End image description.]

This is my neighbor Plum, aka. plumbunny, and her two kids. DeAnthony (2) and Jasmyne (4). I’m gonna lay this out, short and sweet:

• Some serious bullshit went down with the cops and the children’s dad is in jail.
• A fluke left them with a $500+ electricity bill at the beginning of the month, just before rent was due.
• Plum’s job decided not to use sick pay for the sick days she took while coping with various psychiatric issues. Her last paycheck was $36.34.
• Plum still owes rent that was due on the first.
• Plus late fees.
• It’s a goddamn fucking miracle they haven’t evicted her family, knowing the apartment complex manager.
• She has nowhere to go but the shelter downtown if she does get evicted.
• She’s been my neighbor for three years.
• My best friend for two years.
• She only needs $50 to pay off her rent.

I’m hooking up my paypal (teh.flea(a)gmail(.)com) for the sole reason of taking donations for her.

Every cent goes to her.

Please, guys, I’m not asking for me. I have places to turn. Plum doesn’t. If you have just a dollar or two to kick her way, I would be grateful. (I’ll even draw you something for you in MSPaint, whenever I have a minute free from work.)

If you can’t donate, signal boost and reblog, please.

(Source: blinkpinkinc, via thereisnosaintellen)

daintyblackpegasus:

daintyblackpegasus:

[Top image: A young, brown-skinned girl wearing glasses and a black hoodie with red and white silkscreened words and images. She has black hair in bangs with the rest pulled to the sides.

Bottom image: Printscreen of a Facebook post from Tina Dixon which reads “FB Fam, Please Help me find my daughter. Aminah Jackson was last seen September 1st 2012 in Northfield NJ. She is 14, 5’3” approx 120lbs. She may not have her glasses. She is also known as “Destiny”. If you have any information about her whereabouts please call 646-327.6944 or 718-749-4844 or email me Tina@whcr.org]

If anyone has information, please contact the woman via the numbers/email address provided above or just send me a message. This was posted on Facebook on 9/6/2012 around 5PM EST, so this seems fairly recent. I’ll definitely make sure any and all updates are forwarded, but for now, I just want her to get home safe. 

UPDATE!

AMINAH WAS FOUND THIS MORNING!

thank you to everyone who boosted and shared, thank you SOOOOOOOO much, i really appreciate all of you from the bottom of my heart. I’m glad that she was found and is safe with her mother again and that there are so many people who care about the wellbeing of our children. 

(Source: slay-z, via fatbrownowl-deactivated20130302)

dopegirlfresh:

str8nochaser:

unapologetically-black:

whb2:

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) 

Mississippi Appendectomy
Peace to Ms Hamer and all the Black, Native American and Latin Woman who were subjected to forced sterilization.

 

MS Fannie Lou Hamer was a Wife, Daughter, Black Activist, A major figure in the civil rights movement and…a victim. 

Back in 1961 Fannie Lou was diagnosed with a small uterine tumor. She checked into the Sunflower City Hospital to have it removed. Without her knowledge or consent, without any indication of medical necessity, the operating physician took the liberty of performing a complete hysterectomy.

Three years later, as a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Ms. Hamer spoke about her experience to an audience in Washington D.C. – telling them that she was one of many black women in her area that had been a victim of a “Mississippi appendectomy” (an unwanted, unrequested and unwarranted hysterectomy given to poor and unsuspecting Black women). According to research, 60% of the black women in Sunflower County, Mississippi were subjected to postpartum sterilizations at Sunflower City Hospital without their permission.

A number of physicians who examined these women after the procedure was performed confirm that the practice of sterilizing Southern Black women through trickery or deceit was widespread.
 
But it does not end there. The forced sterilization of black women got its start during slavery, but has persisted in less overt forms in recent years. A 1991 experiment that implanted the now-defunct birth control device Norplant into African American teenagers in Baltimore was applauded by some observers as a way to “reduce the underclass.”

Dr. Lester Hibbard of L.A. County Hospital admits in 1972 that vaginal tubal ligations were sometimes selected over abdominal tubal ligations because of their “instructional value,” even though the vaginal procedure often led to serious complications.

According to the acting director of a municipal hospital in New York City in 1975, “In most major teaching hospitals in New York City, it is the unwritten policy to do elective hysterectomies on poor, Black, and Puerto Rican women with minimal indications, to train residents … at least 10% of gynecological surgery in New York is done on this basis. And 99% of this is done on Blacks and Puerto Rican women.”

During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, a policy of involuntary surgical sterilization was imposed upon Native American women in the United States, usually without their knowledge or consent, by the federally funded Indian Health Service (IHS), then run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It is alleged that the existence of the sterilization program was discovered by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) during its occupation of the BIA headquarters in 1972. A 1974 study by Women of All Red Nations (WARN), concluded that as many as 42 percent of all American Indian women of childbearing age had, by that point, been sterilized without their consent.

A subsequent investigation was conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), though it was restricted to only four of the many IHS facilities nationwide and examined only the years 1973 to 1976. The GAO study showed that 3,406 involuntary sterilizations were performed in these four IHS hospitals during this three-year period. Consequently, the IHS was transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services in 1978.

by Serena Sebring 

Forced sterilization of BLACK, NATIVE AMERICAN, AND PUERTO RICAN women. Yet another affirmation of why it is important for minorities to unite and fight for one another.

I’ve read about Fannie Lou Hamer several times, and each time it makes me sick. Though recently, its made me sicker… and angry.

I think this speaks to the fact that as a woman, you need to be able to be empowered about your health. And that if a woman is poor, lacks education and happens to be brown, her ability to do so is significantly diminished.

Just because its 2011 doesn’t mean that this kind of thing hasn’t stopped. 

I’ll use myself as an example. When I was diagnosed with fibroids and ovarian cysts in 2009 (after basically diagnosing myself because they were trying to treat me for PID), the first gyn I went to told me that his surgical plan was to remove my ovaries, since the cysts were so large. 

I told him that was unacceptable because I haven’t had any children, and I was married to a man I wanted to have kids with. He told me I might have to give up my dream of conceiving with my husband. I told him I knew that cystectomies had been performed on cysts larger and more complex than mine (basically called his skills into question). 

He looked at me funny for a moment… and basically told me to find another doctor. 

So I did. A black, female reproductive endocrinologist who performed my surgery elegantly and preserved all my parts. She currently monitors my fertility so that when we choose to, we can have children. 

But see… I have the benefit of having family in the medical field, as well as working in healthcare myself. I also have the benefit of extensive education and the ability to advocate for myself. 

Many poor women don’t. Especially poor women of color. 

I’m happy that so many of my friends are in the medical field… and that they themselves have been through experiences similar to mine. We need to do more though… and I’ve just been inspired. I have an idea. 

epic commentary.

(via masteradept)

black-americana:

HELP SUPPORT THE BLACK AMERICANA SERIES (CLICK HERE)

“BLACK AMERICANA:  The Photo-Essay” 

Vol. 1 - Island in the Sun 

“Black Americana” is a four part photo-essay presenting a commentary on Black American life and patriotism.

When we weren’t marching, dodging fire hoses, and police dogs biting at our brown skin – when we weren’t singing songs of freedom, and training how to peacefully resist in southern sit-ins, we were doing what other Americans did – we went to the beach. “Island in the Sun”, a first installment in the ground-breaking series “Black Americana” re-introduces, and reclaims the image – the representation of free Black women and men living their lives openly and beautifully. The series seeks to offer a broader lens of Black American life not often seen – a restoration of Black bodies on a summer day in 1950’s America. “The beach setting is significant.” says Brandon Littlejohn, Creative Producer of “Black Americana”. “Beaches are visually associated with affluence in urban areas because of Black people’s limited access.” Littlejohn continues, “I wanted to capture Black young women and men in these spaces, because after all, this was a reality for Black people during this time.” This is the other side of the southern Black domestic worker; the other side of the Black male porter. This too was Black American life, in all of its splendor.

- Geneva S. Thomas

Creative Producer - Brandon Littlejohn

Photographer - Rod Gailes OBC

Wardrobe Design - Jamari Walker

Makeup Design - Dominique Jenelle

Hair Design - Shirlonda Brailsford

Casting - Latrice Davis

Women’s Bathing Suits designed by D’ Angelo Scott

Models - (Tope Alabi, Desmond Amofah, Ngozi Assata, Tradell Hawkins, Stephanie Kyereme, Titilayo Mutushi, Robert Vance)

______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Creative Producer, Brandon Littlejohn, and Photographer, Rod Gailes OBC, are collaborating to create a brilliant four-part photography series that showcases classic American settings through an Afro-Elite lens. The “Black Americana” series encourages African Americans to challenge societal messages about Blackness, while aspiring to higher levels of art and education on their own terms. Creating opportunities in the creative industry via a collective effort and artistically challenging the way African Americans have been conditioned to see themselves are two main goals of the “Black Americana” series.  

-Taylor N. Lewis

(via nolongerwtfox-deact)