News — black women

The Sofa. 100% Unfiltered Discussions. Real Talk by Real People. Topic: Do all men cheat, what are your definitions of cheating?
Discussion by @marygodwin @tia_amarie Eavie Filmed by @thinkweike @mrghostrain6 | Produced / Edited by @thinkweike for @africax5

Martina Big has had injections to turn her into a black woman. Martina Big explains that she admires women of color, their skin, and their curves. She has had three melatonin injects costing 170 pounds each. Her skin color, hair color, and eye color have all changed to match those of a person of color. Her husband, Michael, is also taking the necessary steps to change his skin color. Martina has spent time in Africa to learn more about black culture and their way of living. She now identifies as 100% black. What do you think about Martina's choice?

At California's Institution for Men in Chino, 78 female transgender prisoners live among more than 3,500 men. The prisoners live in shared spaces and bunk beds. Many live in fear of sexual assault and would prefer to be transferred to female prisons per their rights. According to the justice department, 35% of transgender people individuals report cases of sexual assault by other prisoners or prison staff. LGBTQ advocates note these numbers could be higher. At Chino, most trans women have requested transfers but have been denied or asked about their security concerns. What do you think about the safety of transgender persons and the changes that need to be made?

Even though slavery was abolished more than a century ago, it has evolved to take up a more modern form; human trafficking. Those most affected are from poor communities promised better opportunities abroad only to be sold as sex slaves. In Nigeria, girls as young as fifteen are tricked into thinking they are traveling to Italy for better opportunities, only to be burdened with massive debts amounting to up to 25,000 euros. They perform sexual favors to try and pay this debt and are sold to other traffickers like goods. This is not any different from the trans-Atlantic slave trade; the only difference is this is happening in a modern world where everyone has rights. What are your thoughts?

Yolanda Guzmán was a young Afro Latina activist in the Dominican Republic who was killed in 1965 at the time of an uprising by supporters of the country’s democratically-installed president Juan Bosch, who had been overthrown by military-backed forces. Guzmán, who had worked for the Bosch administration, disappeared along with five companions within days of the United States’ invasion of the island republic in support of the anti-democratic forces. Most Dominicans believe that Guzmán was assassinated on May 2, 1965, by the Centro de Ensenanza de las Fuerzas Armadas (the federal branch of military education under the dictatorship). The Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States eventually gained access and identified her body.

Guzmán’s death at age 21 came to symbolize the ways in which women and young people fought against one of the longest-running and vicious dictatorships in 20th century Latin America, that of Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo had dominated the Dominican Republic for over thirty years, with the support of the U.S. government, before he was assassinated in 1961. Bosch was elected president in 1962 but the Dominican military did not like his reformist policies, and he was overthrown in 1963. In April 1965, after pro-Bosch forces attacked the military-controlled government to reinstate Bosch, President Lyndon Johnson sent in U.S. troops, who, supported by forces provided by some of the members of the OAS, helped install a conservative, non-military government.

Guzmán was born on July 8, 1943, in San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. She was the daughter of Beatriz Guzmán, a domestic worker, and Carlos Maria Paulino Fernandez, who served in the brief Bosch administration. Both of her parents were fierce anti-Trujillistas. Because of the repressive environment for those who dared to criticize the Trujillo dictatorship, and the possibility of torture, imprisonment, and death of activists, Guzmán ran in clandestine circles and the specifics of her activities are not well documented. It is known that she worked in some capacity for the women’s division in the Bosch administration and that her passion for women’s rights fueled her work. Some authors have pointed to the deaths of the well-known anti-Trujillo activist Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa, known as las mariposas (the butterflies), as a crucial moment in Guzmán’s commitment to opposing anti-democratic forces in her homeland. After the sisters’ deaths, Guzmán began to engage in more public protests. Most likely she, like other female activists during this period, helped with weapons training, instructed other combatants, managed funds and food between the capital and the interior, organized secret communications and care for the wounded, procured food, and buried the dead.

Much of the writing on civil rights history in the transportation setting has been about the arrest of Rosa Parks, a woman who defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a White passenger on a bus. Her move, on December 1, 1955, started the boycott that would help galvanize the civil rights movement. But her stance did not just come out of nowhere.

In fact, half a century before the civil rights movement, Barbara Pope boarded a train and in the process challenged Virginia’s Jim Crow law requiring segregation on trains and streetcars. The D.C. native, whose story is virtually unknown today, started off as a published writer, whose works focused on social change. Her stories were well received, especially by Black greats like WEB DuBois, however, her stance against racism in transportation almost 50 years before Parks’ bus ride became her greatest feat.

She would grab headlines in the U.S. as the primary player in the DuBois-led Niagara Movement’s first challenge to interstate segregation laws, according to one account. Pope’s case further paved the way for the NAACP’s landmark 1954 Supreme Court victory in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. But many soon forgot about her until her shocking death in 1908. To some historians, her contributions to civil rights were deliberately erased, and this is largely why.

Born in 1854, Pope grew up in Georgetown’s Black community. She started a teaching career at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and championed reforms in the District’s Colored School System, according to an article in The Washington Post Magazine. By 1890, she had begun publishing fiction. In 1906, she joined the Niagara Movement, the organization of Black intellectuals that was led by Du Bois. Pope became one of the movement’s first female members at a time it was gaining ground in the Black Community of D.C. In that same year she joined the movement, she made history.

In August 1906, Pope boarded a train at Union Station to travel to Virginia. Before the ride, history notes that she “had been annoyed before” by Virginia’s Jim Crow rule and “didn’t want to be annoyed that way” again. Thus, when she bought her ticket she wanted nothing but a peaceful and comfortable ride. She however received the opposite. Boarding at Union Station, she saw the colored compartment was uncomfortably small and restricted, with seats faced backward. Pope, therefore, took a seat in the main compartment.

After the train had crossed the Potomac into Virginia, her troubles began. A White conductor asked her to move but she refused. The conductor followed it up with a threat of arrest but she still refused. Pope was later detained at the mayor’s office after the train stopped at Falls Church. A kangaroo court was set up by the mayor in the train station, where Pope was tried for “violating the separate car law of the State of Virginia” and fined $10 plus court costs, per the report in The Washington Post Magazine.

Some weeks later, members of the Niagara Movement voted to fund an appeal to overturn her conviction in the Virginia circuit court, hoping that would be a test case. They argued that as an interstate traveler, Pope was not subject to Virginia’s Jim Crow statutes. But that October, Pope lost her appeal at an Alexandria circuit court. She, along with the movement, did not give up. They headed to Virginia’s Supreme Court of Appeals, where victory became theirs in 1907. “This means that the NIAGARA MOVEMENT has established that under the present statute Virginia cannot fine an interstate passenger who refuses to be Jim-Crowed,” Du Bois later explained.

The Niagara movement subsequently filed a civil case demanding $50,000 in damages. When the trial opened in June 1907 in D.C., the jury voted in Pope’s favor but awarded her just one cent.

Some months after the civil trial, Pope went through “personal troubles”. She did not only lose her job but suffered from insomnia for months. One evening in September 1908, the 54-year-old decided to end it all. “She walked out onto Lovers’ Lane, beside Montrose Park in Georgetown, pinned a note addressed to the coroner to her dress, and hanged herself,” the article in The Washington Post Magazine said, adding that the note said she felt her brain was “on fire”.

Soon, her story would be absent from African-American history, and historians blame this on the stigma associated with suicide. One could only find Pope’s work in the Library of Congress on microfilm until 2015 when historian Jennifer Harris wrote a profile of Pope for Legacy, a journal of American women writers, highlighting the story of the little-known but impactful woman.

Queen Amina is often mentioned among norm-busting African women of old whose accomplishments and deeds surpass what we modern society has come to expect of women. Even though her historicity has been questioned multiple times, the former queen of Zazzau continues to be regarded as the archetypal empowered woman.

She was born circa 1533 in Zazzau, a Hausa people whose ancient kingdom is now known as Zaria (curiously named after Amina’s sister) in the northern region of ancient Nigeria. Her family was a wealthy and noble family. Amina’s family made their fortunes from the sale of leather goods, kola, salt, horses and imported metals, Amina acquired battle skills while understudying with the soldiers of the Zazzau military.

Upon the death of her mother the queen in 1566, the rule of Zazzau fell on Amina’s younger brother Karama as customary in those days. After ten years or so on the throne, Karama died and the leadership baton fell on Queen Amina who had gathered much popularity among Zazzau’s people and military owing to her exemplary leadership skills and for the fact that she was unbeatable even as a female warrior. Thus, in 1576, she became the Queen of Zazzau.

Among the things credited to Amina is her securing her kingdom’s direct access to the Atlantic Coast for trade-related reasons and expanding Zazzau’s territory up to Nupe and Kwarafa in the north. To ensure this, she is thought to have personally led military expeditions of over 20,000 infantrymen to innumerable battles. And this is where it gets intriguing for a woman.

Amina never married but according to Emirates of Northern Nigeria written Sidney Hogben, rather took lovers from these towns that she overcame in battle. As she did not make them her husband, it is safe to assume Amina was not looking to forge bonds in the protection of her kingdom. The most reasonable conclusion one may draw was that she was a woman in the position to have a lover of her choice and did not turn down the opportunity.

But Hogben’s book also claimed that Amina’s “brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale”. This may speak to the idea that although she was an independent woman capable of having her way, she may have still been under pressure of gendered expectations of womanhood. Male rulers would not ordinarily kill their female lovers just so they do not live to tell the tale.

On March 18 of this year, the popular Chicago-based dominatrix Mistress Velvet took to her Twitter account to announce that she was “getting a divorce and going through mourning” for which reason she was suspending virtual and in-person work for the time being. The next tweet from her account, however, was the announcement of Mistress Velvet’s death.

She was followed by more than 11 thousand people on the social media platform many of whom commiserated with her family and fans. Her connection to Ghana is not clear although she has an emoticon of the country’s flag in her Twitter name.

To say Velvet was eccentric is, to say the least, boring. In a world dominated by male egos and achievements, dominatrices have to be eccentric to survive. In Velvet’s own words in an interview earlier this year with the Huffington Post, a dominatrix must provide an avenue for men to go to as a “safe space to explore the parts of them that may not be seen as masculine, or they might have a lot of shame around.” She viewed her work beyond the physical performance and exertions but also a manifestation of a mental state that should not be overlooked.

Masculine performativity – the fact of acting and responding to the world as males are usually raised to do – constrains our imaginations, according to Velvet. Men are not expected to show “softness” and even if they did, they are not expected to continually retain that feature. It is as though material achievement is the only ought and nothing should stand in a man’s way in pursuance of this. When this happens women become the objects of male oppression as men try in any way possible to show themselves powerful and with little to no emotional weakness.

As a result of this, Velvet introduced into her sessions, a part where the men who submitted themselves to her read Black feminist theory. This was novel. She had started off as a sex worker purely for the purpose of sustenance and to pay the bills but here she was, teaching mostly straight white men about the Combahee River Collective and such.

“Just allowing them to be submissive doesn’t allow for the more drastic shift in the framework and thinking that I want. So I have to bring in my girls, like Audre Lorde and Patricia Hill Collins, and make these men actually read about black feminism,” Velvet said.

Among the books the subs read were Sisters Outside by Audre Lourde, The Black Body in Ecstasy by Jennifer Nash and The Color of Kink by Ariane Cruz. It is imaginable to see Velvet treating these texts as if she was in an academic setting since she held a master’s degree herself. That too was part of her eccentricities because we do not hear of many sex workers who are that educated.

Velvet described herself as a Black Liberation practitioner, a pro-sex work activist and a communist. Her activism was recognized by various sex work rights advocates as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community. She was 33.

A mother and her long-lost daughter reunited after five decades in the most unusual way. Lisa Wright was good with going to her grave not knowing who her real mother was until her son’s curiosity to reveal her genetic makeup led her straight into the arms of her real mother.

Wright, who is now 54, said she grew up knowing her real mother gave birth to her when she was 18. Her adoption was a closed one, so her adoptive parents and biological mother never met.

“My (adoptive) mom told me, ‘Your mommy loved you, but she was really young, and she knew she couldn’t take care of you. I wanted the baby so bad, and that’s why your mom let me take care of you. You weren’t abandoned. This was just the best thing for you,'” Wright told Today in an exclusive.

Her son was curious about her genetic heritage and suggested she does a DNA test. Wright was not hesitant, and the results launched an avalanche of surprises that changed her life forever. “I get an alert, and it says, ‘This person is your uncle,'” Wright said. “So, I just reached out and said, ‘If you’re open to it, I would love to chat with you to see what all of this means.'”

She connected with her uncle immediately, who realized from the get-go when Wright revealed her birth date and the circumstances surrounding her adoption that she was the daughter of his sister who gave her up to pursue a career in Hollywood.

A few days later, Wright got the call she had been waiting for. After 50 years, she was finally speaking with her mother, actor Lynne Moody, who had given up all hope of ever reconnecting with her child. Interestingly, Moody never had another child after her.  

“When she was born, they covered my face, my eyes, so that I couldn’t see her,” Moody said. “But I could hear her cry. All I could say was ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry.’ As a mother, you never, ever, ever forget. During those 50 years, all I did was try to learn how to live with it. I didn’t know if she was hungry if she was alive if she was happy if she was adopted.”

Moody also turned out to be a character from Wright’s favorite sitcom from the mid-’70s. She starred in an ABC series ironically called “That’s My Mama.”

“I grew up watching my mother on TV and didn’t even know it,” Wright said. “‘That’s My Mama’ — that was our must-see TV. We all sat down and watched ‘That’s My Mama’ every week, and who knew? No idea. … And that’s my mama!”

Since then, Wright’s son has met his grandmother. Wright has also met her four sisters from her biological father’s side as well as more relatives from Moody’s family. Sadly, Wright’s adoptive parents did not get to witness this reunion because they had passed away.

Moody’s take home for everyone is that we “keep the faith” because “life is full of surprises sometimes.”

A noticeably pregnant Nigerian woman has nabbed a Taekwondo gold medal at the ongoing biennial National Sports Festival. Aminat Idrees trained for months before the multi-sport event and she was not going to let her current condition stop her from participating in the event after being cleared by her doctor.

Footage of the 26-year-old beautifully executing different combat techniques in Poomsae, the non-combat form of Taekwondo, was shared on Twitter. Idrees won gold for the Mixed Poomsae category and took home medals from other Poomsae categories.

As part of Team Lagos, and this being the first time the team won gold, Idrees was one of the leading medalists at the sports festival. Apart from winning gold in the Mixed Poomsae category, she also took home silver in the female team Poomsae category and won an individual bronze medal in the same category.

Idrees said being able to participate in the competition was a “privilege.” “It’s such a privilege for me. I just decided to give it a try after training a couple of times… It feels really good,” she said.

“Before I got pregnant, I have always enjoyed the training, so it didn’t seem different with pregnancy,” Idrees added.

The organizers of the National Sports Festival taking place in Edo State were elated by her performance and described her win as “inspiring”. However, some Twitter users criticized her for endangering the life of her unborn child.

One user said, “If you are seeing this and you going about how strong a woman is, you are a fool The organizers that allowed this to happen are mad The woman herself is mad and she needs someone to tell her What in f**s name is she trying to prove There is breaking the barrier and then stupidity.”

Another said, “This rather Sickening than Inspiring.”

But some jumped to her defense and attempted to explain the category of sport in which she participated in. Idrees explained she got clearance from her doctor as well as the organizing body of the games which certified her fit to participate in the sport. 

She told CNN that many people have a misconception about the sport, adding that this is the right time to educate people on Taekwondo. “Taekwondo has two branches: the combat sport and Poomsae — which is a form of exercise…just displaying the hand and leg techniques in Taekwondo. I participated in the Poomsae event,” she said.

Professor Shirley Thompson in 2002 became the first woman to compose a symphony in 40 years in Europe. Her ensemble, “New Nation Rising, A 21st Century Symphony” was recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and written in celebration of the thousand-year history of London. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was accompanied by solo singers, a rapper, two choirs, and dhol drummers making a total of about 200 performers

An English composer of Jamaican descent, Thompson first fell in love with composition when she began playing the violin in youth symphony orchestras in London while signing with local choirs as well.

Her “New Nation Rising” composition, which made its debut at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, had its concept taken as the framework for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

Thompson is a seasoned composer, educator, artistic director, and conductor whose works have been played and heard the world over. Her pieces have been used for many films, television, theatre, dance, and opera productions.

She pursued her bachelor’s in Musicology at the University of Liverpool and specialized in Composition at Goldsmiths’ College with Professor Stanley Glasser. She is a Reader in Composition and Performance at the University of Westminster and has served on many art councils.

“Visions,” from the Greenwich International Festival, was her first major composition, and then a few more followed. Thompson added writing music for films and television to her resume and that was a success too.

Her composition for the popular series, “South of the Border”, made it to the top 20 theme song list on BBC at the time. She received a prize at the Mannheim Film Festival for her composition for the film “Dreaming Rivers.”

Thompson’s repertoire transcends film and television and seeps into dance. Aside from being commissioned for several royal engagements, she got busy making classic pieces for contemporary choreographers including the Royal Ballet School’s workshops.

“Shift” is her most popular dance score and it featured a solo cello and string orchestra for the award-winning ballet performance “PUSH” which was headlined by seasoned ballet dancers Sylvie Guillem and Russel Maliphnat, not only in England but in over 20 countries that the ballet number toured.

In 1995, she founded and directed The Shirley Thompson Ensemble at the South Bank Center in London. Her diverse group consisted of instrumental soloists, singers, visual artists, and dancers. This group was the foundation of her unique compositions.

Music is her life, and she would not stop until many more are groomed into the industry. With that, she spearheaded many arts education programs including that of the Newham Symphony Schools Spectacular for children from 7 to 17 years of age in 2002. The whole Newham borough ended up adopting the program as part of the national education plan in 2010 under the banner, “Every Child a Musician.”

Thompson’s works span decades and her versatility is admired by many. Be it in theatre, opera, dance, film, or television, Thompson delivers excellent pieces. Heroines of Opera, her work to unearth submerged narratives that feature iconic women in history, has been lauded by many.

She was the first woman to serve as executive of the Association of Professional Composers and is an active member of the Classical Music Executive for the British Academy of Song Writers, Composers, and Authors.

Dr. Sheryl Victorian has been named the chief of police for the City of Waco, Texas. With her wealth of experience and education, her appointment was a no-brainer for City Manager Bradley Ford as he recommended Victorian.

As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, her historic appointment makes her Waco’s first Black and first female police chief.

Victorian began her law enforcement career as a police cadet in Houston in 1993. In 1995, she was recognized as the 100 Club of Houston’s “Rookie Officer of the Year”. She worked with the Houston Police department for 28 years, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief. On February 16, the Waco City Council voted unanimously to confirm Victorian as city’s police chief.

She was one of four finalists for the position after the department received 43 candidates from 17 states.

Of her nomination, she said, “It is a privilege and honor to have my name forwarded to the city council. Maintaining the trust of the community, adopting, and improving our department to meet the changing needs and demands of policing, and keeping our officers and citizens safe are my objectives from day one if council approves my selection.”

“It would be an honor to lead the department and I look forward to working proactively to keep Waco a great community to work, live and raise a family.”

Many gathered at the Waco Convention Center on the day of her swearing-in to witness a historic moment as Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, her former boss, pinned on her new badge.

“I will push to become the model city for public safety, and police-community partnerships, and building trust and legitimacy in policing,” Chief Victorian said to the crowd.

Not only does being the first Black female chief bring diversity to the role, but Victorian’s innovation over the years in whatever capacity she has served is also always in tandem with her community’s vision and she always delivers.

“Sheryl’s depth of hands-on management experience, her educational background, and her support for innovative programs all stood out,” Ford said.

“Sheryl shared our community’s vision for a leader who embraces continuous improvement, community policing, and a commitment to serving and protecting all of our citizens.”

Victorian holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Affairs from Texas Southern University, a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from The University of Houston, and a doctorate in Administration of Justice, also from Texas Southern University.

Aside from heading the City of Waco police department, Chief Victorian is also an assistant professor at Southern New Hampshire University where she teaches Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice, Ethics, and the Graduate Capstone course, according to the city’s site.

Talk of a decorated police chief, Victorian is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and numerous nationally accredited leadership programs. She holds a Texas Master Peace Officer’s license and has received numerous awards and commendations over her career with Houston PD, reports.

Waco NAACP President Dr. Peaches Henry did not miss the swearing-in ceremony because she has openly supported Chief Victorian not just because she is Black and a woman but because she has all the experience and qualifications to head the City of Waco’s police department.

“The fact that she is African-American, and female is wonderful, but without all of her outstanding qualifications, it would be meaningless. So, we are delighted to see her,” Henry said.

Chief Victorian is now the 28th police chief heading the department with 266 commissioned officers and 100 civilian staff. She’s going to be a blessing. I’m so happy for her and Waco,” Houston Police Chief Acevedo told news.