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Patriarchy
baffles me as much as white supremacy does. How do the men, birthed
by women, consider us inferior? When we raise our voices, we are
irrational or hysterical. When we are emphatic, we are hostile.
According to former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, we talk too
much in meetings when we talk. Mori offered this weak excuse when
questioned about the scarcity of women on the Tokyo Olympic
Organizing Committee, which he chairs. Later, the 83-year-old Mori
apologized, citing criticism from his daughter and granddaughter.
That’s
Japan, not the United States, some might say. But show me a woman who
has sat in an executive, civic, or academic meeting, and I’ll
show you a woman who has confronted patriarchal attitudes in
meetings. Listening to men restate her point, which was ignored when
she made it. Interrupted. Encountered the passive hostility that
comes when men don’t want to hear women’s voices.
But
in this Black History Month, I pondered the impact of Black women’s
voices and wondered what would happen if we were silent. What if
Maggie Lena Walker didn’t encourage us to turn our pennies into
dollars, as she formed the Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia?
What would have happened if Sojourner Truth did not proclaim, “ain’t
I a woman”? What would have happened if Harriet Tubman had not
led hundreds out of enslavement by simply saying, “come on
y’all” What would have happened if Maxine Waters had not
reclaimed her time, or if now-Vice President Kamala Harris, as a
Senator, had not interrupted someone by saying, “I was
speaking.” What would have happened if Shirley Chisholm had not
proclaimed herself “unbought and unbossed,” leading the
way for Congresswomen like Ayana Pressley (MA), Yvette Clarke (NY),
Joyce Beatty (OH), and Cori Bush( MO) to proclaim the same?
We
appreciate former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first
African American to serve on the Supreme Court. How many of us know,
though, of Julia Baxter Bates, the first Black woman to be admitted
to Douglass College, the women’s college of Rutgers. Baxter
Bates graduated in 1938, hoping to teach in New Jersey schools, but
segregation laws prevented her from chasing her dream. She earned a
master’s degree at Columbia University and taught at Dillard
University in New Orleans. Then, she led the NAACP research
component, working with Walter White, WEB Du Bois, and Thurgood
Marshall. Many say that her research influenced the Brown v. Board of
Education Supreme Court case. Did she talk too much, or just enough?
Her nephew, Kevin Fields, a New Jersey entrepreneur, says that
Justice Marshall considered her “a partner.”
History
belongs to she who holds the pen, and whether it is intentional or
simply myopic, too many men, regardless of race, have shown
resistance to Black women’s uplift. It becomes all too clear
during Black History Month when too much is viewed through a
patriarchal lens. For example, on February 1, folks commemorated the
role four young Black men from North Carolina A&T State
University played in desegregation by sitting at a segregated
Woolworth’s lunch counter. How many know that the protest was
planned at nearby Bennett College which also played a role in that
sit-in? Black women’s voices, women’s presence, and
women’s history need to be more visible.
Our
legacy civil rights organizations, the NAACP, Urban League, and
Rainbow PUSH, and the National Action Network must offer an example
of shared leadership by emphasizing women’s voices in their
organizations. I’m not suggesting that men “move over”
for women, young people, or anyone else. I’m saying that if the
CEO is the President and CEO, perhaps the Board Chair should be a
woman. Women, after all, are more likely to be dues-paying members of
these organizations. Do we talk too much? Perhaps our voices are
entirely proportionate to our contribution.
In
any case, Olympic leader and former Japanese Prime Minister said what
many men worldwide, and certainly in these United States, are
thinking. Women talk too much in meetings. Really, dude? From my
perspective, women don’t talk enough, and embracing women’s
voices will improve our world. What if women didn’t talk? Our
world would be much worse off.
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