A Strong Black Woman

WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
IS IT A DISEASE?

WELL, IF IT IS,I SURE HOPE IT'S CATCHING
BECAUSE THEY NEED TO POUR IT INTO A BOTTLE,
LABEL IT, AND SPRINKLE IT
ALL OVER THE PEOPLE~ MEN AND WOMEN~WHO
EVER LOVED OR CRIED, WORKED OR DIED
FOR ANY ONE OF US.
SO...WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
IS IT A CRIME? ARREST ME! BECAUSE I'M STRONG, BUT I'M GENTLE.
I'M SMART,BUT I'M LEARNING, I'M LOVING, BUT I'M HATEFUL.
AND I LIKE TO WORK BECAUSE I LIKE TO EAT AND FEED AND CLOTHE
AND HOUSE ME, MINE, AND YOURS AND EVERYBODYS,
LIKE I'VE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST
300 YEARS.

WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
IS IT INSANE? COMMITT ME!
BECAUSE I WANT THE HAPPINESS,
NOT TEARS; TRUTHS, NOT
LIES; PLEASURE NOT PAIN;
SUNSHINE, NOT RAIN;
A MAN, NOT A CHILD!

WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
IS IT A SIN? PRAY FOR ME! AND PRAY FOR YOU TOO, IF YOU DON'T LIKE WOMEN OF COLOR BECAUSE WE ARE... MIDNIGHT BLACK, CHESTNUT BROWN, HONEY BRONZED, CHOCOLATE COVERED, COCOA DIPPED, BIGGED LIPPED, BIG HIPPED, BIG BREASTED, AND BEAUTIFUL ALL AT THE SAME TIME! SO...WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT MUCH BECAUSE
I WANT A MAN WHO WANTS ME...LOVES ME AND TRUSTS ME, AND RESPECTS ME
AND GIVES ME EVERYTHING BECAUSE I
GIVE HIM EVERYTHING BACK, PLUS!

WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
I'VE GOT RIGHTS, SAME AS YOU!
I HAVE WORKED FOR THEM, DIED FOR THEM, LIED FOR THEM, PLAYED AND LAID
FOR THEM, ON EVERY PLANTATION FROM ALABAMA TO BOSTON AND BACK!

WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN?
I LOVE ME, AND I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME TOO, BUT I AM, AS I'VE ALWAYS
BEEN, NEAR YOU, CLOSE TO YOU, BESIDE YOU, STRONG, GIVING, LOVING,

FOR OVER 300 YEARS,
YOUR BLACK WOMAN... LOVE ME!

-Author Unknown

The Goddess' Chant

I am all women, I am every woman.

Wherever women are suffering,

I am there.

Wherever woman are struggling,

I am there.

Wherever woman are fighting for their liberation,

I am there.

I am at the bedside of the woman giving birth,

screaming in labor;

I am with the women selling their bodies

in third world countries

so that her children may eat;

I am with the woman selling her

body in the streets of American cities

to feed the habit she acquired

from her boyfriend.

I am with the woman who never sees

the light outside her kitchen;

I am with the woman who never sees

the light outside her factory;

I am with the woman whose fingers

are still from endless typing and

whose legs ache from the high heels

she must wear to please her boss.

I am with the woman bleeding to death

on the kitchen table

of a quack abortionist;

I am with the woman answering

endless questions of

the inquisitive caseworkers;

and I am with the caseworkers,

whose dreams of making a new

social order have long been smothered

in the endless bureaucracy,

the endless forms, the racism of their superiors.

I am with the beauty queen

painting her face and spraying

her hair with poison;

I am with the black prostitute

straightening her hair

and lightening her skin;

I am with the young child

for whom an apron is the only thing

she has been taught to dream of;

I am at the hospital where a

beaten child is being treated for wounds

caused by a mother driven

by desperation past sanity,

past compassion;

I am with the fourty-five-year-old file clerk,

raped and strangled in her one-room walkup.

I am with all women; I am all women,

and our struggle grows

I am with the welfare mothers

who will not be turned away

by the indifferent legislators;

I am with the airline stewardesses

fighting to retain their jobs

after they reach thirty

and their market value has decreased;

I am with the sistah hexing Wall Street

and the bridal fairs and the beauty contests;

I am with women struggling everywhere.

And where there are women too beaten down to fight,

I will be there;

and we will take strength together.

Everywhere: for we will have a new world,

a just world, a world without

oppression and degradation.

The Goddess' Chant from Everywoman

Past, Present, and Future

In honor of April, National Poetry Month.

Excerpt from the play: THE LAST OF THE RED HOT MAMMAS, OR, THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE WORLD (1969) This play was performed at the founding convention of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. A play performed by an entire audience, and by Marylee A., Ellen A., Amy C., Pat M. Sherry Jenkins, Amy Kesselman, Naomi Weisstein (1969)