Protecting Black Women: Addressing Colorism Issues And Abuse

By: Kwana Adams

Sometimes the only people black women have to take care of them are other black women. The hashtag #sayhername was born from black women because of black women being neglected, and put to the side when it comes to social issues such as police brutality, domestic violence and anti-black acts of violence.

The hashtag was a movement created to shed a light on the fact that black women’s issues are often sidelined. Some notable names from this hashtag are Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, and Breonna Taylor. However, there are countless stories that are not being told or are not given enough recognition and care as other stories. 

A rapper by the name of Talib Kweli has been harassing a black woman online and has not stopped for almost a year. Even being banned from Twitter did not stop that man from his continued harassment which he simply continued on Instagram. He has also talked about her on shows and in interviews continuing to make himself the victim.

The woman he has been harassing goes by @Moneyymaya on Twitter and a harmless tweet caused almost a whole year of targeted harassment from a black man who took the tweet personally. Talib was only one of many other black rappers named but was the only one to take it to this extreme. The tweet was a brief mention of colorism and how black rappers perpetuate and uphold it in the black community. It was a very valid opinion and something that could have possibly been addressed in a more respectable matter had Talib not instead decided to target Maya relentlessly.

Colorism is alive and well in our community and it does deserve a spotlight. However, the potential conversation was overshadowed by a man who got his feelings hurt. As a community, we should be addressing this a lot more and holding black men accountable for the abuse they inflict onto black women. 

Followers and supporters of Talib Kweli have also been harassing Maya, threatening her family, sending threats of rape and death, and even doxxing her family members. Kweli and his supporters have even gone as far as to harass people who have spoken up in support of Maya. He took to Instagram that rapper Noname compared him to Tory Lanez, a rapper who allegedly shot another black woman, Megan Thee Stallion in both feet.

Maya has endured threats to not only her livelihood but her family’s the same way Megan has become a topic of ridicule and speculation on social media. Noname has also been slandered in the process of trying to protect black women.  None of these women deserve what they’re going through. They deserve to be protected and they deserve to be heard. 

Since Maya was told by lawyers that there’s not much of anything that can be done of the harassment, she’s been documeting the whole ordeal in Twitter threads amd letting everyone know tha if something happens to her, it’s because of this incident and the poor way it’s been handled. Other black women have been targets as well for sticking up for her. My question is, why is it that the majority of people coming to her defense are black women? Will everyone hear us only when it’s too late, and even then, will anyone protect us? How has this man been able to get away with openly harassing women for almost a year nonstop?

Please follow this story for your own research because there are still so many things that I did not mention in this article. Black women don’t always have to be “strong” and it’s that that kind of responsibility put on us that makes it hard for us to get justice in situations such as this. Talib Kweli, Tory Lanez, and other harmful men need to be stopped. They need to be held accountable for the harm they cause black women and it shouldn’t only be up to black women to do it. Say our names and tell our stories.

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Stop Asian Hate: Support a Cause Without Degrading Another

By: Kwana Adams

There has been a lot of Anti-Asian hate crimes happening all over the world. It’s been a thing since the pandemic started over a year ago, but it has gotten significantly worse over the recent months.

Recently, there was a mass shooting in Georgia that took the life of six out of 8 women of Asian descent. Although the gunman himself claimed the crime was not racially motivated, it’s hard to believe, seeing as though all the victims were of Asian descent and mostly women.

Older people of Asian descent have been the biggest victims of Anti-Asian hate crimes lately too, and it’s hard to ignore or deny the fact that Asian people are being targeted. This is a topic that deserves a lot more attention than it’s getting and people are trying to raise awareness.

However, I’ve noticed something off about the way some people are bringing awareness to this issue…Why is it that people are degrading the Black Lives Matter movement to uplift the Anti-Asian hate crime movement? You know these two issues can co-exist right? And each movement is equally as important. There have been numerous Tik Toks and tweets saying things along the lines of, “Y’all were loud for BLM so why aren’t you being loud for this?” or when a black person commits a crime against an Asian person, here come the “But BLM right?” comments. 

I want to see how passionately people (incl other POC) will stand up for Asians. Those of you who were so vocal w BLM, where are you on the 1900% increase in Asian-directed hate crimes? The violence that has taken many lives (yet we rarely see those stories covered in the media)

— Laura Huang (@LauraHuangLA) February 11, 2021

My question is, why does BLM need to be brought up at all? Why can’t one issue be brought up without trying to degrade another? If people did their research, they would know that the movement didn’t happen overnight.

Black Lives Matter was created in 2012 by three black queer women, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. Regardless of what it’s become today, it originally began as a response to Trayvon Martin’s death and the injustice that followed it. It’s grown tremendously since 2012 and that is mostly due to the backlash that it’s received from people who don’t understand what it is.

It started off as a response to police brutality and how the police treat our black bodies. From there, it just grew and grew. Black people have been abused and ignored for so long, that no one could have anticipated this growing as big as it did. Making comments like “But BLM right,” is just anti-black and has no place in these conversations. 

Right girlie. pic.twitter.com/oY28QvrR7F

— Johnny (@garontherun) March 18, 2021

The point I’m trying to make is, it can take time for people to catch wind of important issues. It has nothing to do with people thinking one issue is more important than other. You don’t need to degrade and disrespect one movement to uplift another. And if you’re only bringing up the Anti-Asian hate crime movement, only to bring down the BLM movement, do you even care about that movement, or are you just trying to spew hate?

The other reason the BLM movement was so popular was because black people not only created it, but they refused to let it die. Every single time an injustice was done to a black person, the community rose up. They were in the streets protesting, they were boycotting, they were on social media spreading awareness. All of that contributed to the popularity of BLM.

Creating a movement and making so much noise that people can’t even pretend not to hear you, is why BLM is not going anywhere. Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor… and hundreds more names. There’s a pattern here. There’s a reason we all know their names and it’s because we made sure no one would forget them.

Activists for the Black Lives Matter movement have been jailed, gone missing, or been killed for this movement. It’s so much bigger than people think it is. So when people try to downgrade it, they’re not only disrespecting the movement, but they’re also disrespecting the people who lost their lives behind it. A lot of pain, injustice, and loss went into making BLM as big as it is. 

This may be a hard pill to swallow but the black community is not in charge of making all issues go viral. Stop trying to guilt people into joining a movement when you could be sharing information and raising awareness instead. Black Lives Matter or BLM is not some punchline or retort you can use when there is an issue that’s not getting enough media attention. The Anti-Asian hate crime movement deserves a lot more than that. It is an important issue that deserves a platform that’s not tied to someone else’s movement. Talk about it more.

Let people in your communities know about the hate crimes against the Asian population that’s been happening. Speak to your elected officials. Go out into the streets and protest to get their attention and the attention of the media. Most importantly, make your own movements.  

“Y’all were loud for BLM, but quiet for this,” is not the way to get people involved. Please do better.

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