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Watch: Jessica Williams also explained how the message has been in Beyoncé’s music all along.
The official trailer for Hidden Figures is here!
HIDDEN FIGURES is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
Watch: Serena Williams just masterfully defended herself against a manipulative reporter and gave us all a world class lesson in self love at the same time
There are 101 ways this exchange could’ve gone differently. However, Williams’ concise directive, “You should apologize,” did more than demand kindness. It demanded accountability for rudeness. Well done. This is truly the perfect lesson in “How to respond to respond rude people in 2017.”
Gifs: Australian Open TV
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Shirley Chisholm. As the first black woman to run for president for a major political party, she was years ahead of her time. So why don’t more people know about her?
She championed a bill to ensure domestic workers received benefits, was an advocate for improved access to education, and fought for the rights of immigrants.
“She had guts, and she made people believe that they too can be someone, that we are equal, that gender doesn’t mean you can’t achieve the highest office of government,” her goddaughter Marya Boseley says.
That desire to break boundaries was what drove Shirley Chisholm to make a run for president in 1972, seeking the Democratic nomination a mere three years after she became a congresswoman.
Ms Chisholm, whose slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed,” said she never expected to win but hoped her candidacy would “change the face and future of American politics”.
“I stand before you today, to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for qualified candidates, simply because he is not white or because she is not a male,” she told supporters as she launched her campaign.
I never heard her name in school. Other than hearing Method Man say “I voted for Shirley Chisholm” on Blackout, I knew nothing about her til I read about her on the internet as an adult.
The Democratic Party really fucked Shirley Chisolm over because they wanted a “safe” candidate in George Mcgovern. Then they lost to Nixon.
#BlackHistory #BlackGirlMagic #BlackPride
Google doodle honors Bessie Coleman, the first black woman in the United States to earn a pilot’s license
When Bessie Coleman took flight in 1921 she didn’t just break the glass ceiling — she soared tens of thousands of feet above it.
At the time, Coleman was the first black woman in the United States to earn a pilot’s license.
And as she ascended into the sky that day, all of the people who doubted her, who discriminated against her for her race and gender, would become smaller and smaller until they disappeared out of sight.
“The air is the only place free from prejudices,” Coleman once said.
On Thursday, Google commemorated Coleman’s 125th birthday with a doodle showing her plane doing loops and turns to spell the search engine’s name. Read more
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Author Scott Lynch responds to a critic of the character Zamira Drakasha, a black woman pirate in his fantasy book Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second novel of the Gentleman Bastard series.
The bolded sections represent quotes from the criticism he received. All the z-snaps are in order.
Your characters are unrealistic stereotpyes of political correctness. Is it really necessary for the sake of popular sensibilities to have in a fantasy what we have in the real world? I read fantasy to get away from politically correct cliches.
God, yes! If there’s one thing fantasy is just crawling with these days it’s widowed black middle-aged pirate moms. Real sea pirates could not be controlled by women, they were vicous rapits and murderers and I am sorry to say it was a man’s world. It is unrealistic wish fulfilment for you and your readers to have so many female pirates, especially if you want to be politically correct about it! First, I will pretend that your last sentence makes sense because it will save us all time. Second, now you’re pissing me off. You know what? Yeah, Zamira Drakasha, middle-aged pirate mother of two, is a wish-fulfillment fantasy. I realized this as she was evolving on the page, and you know what? I fucking embrace it. Why shouldn’t middle-aged mothers get a wish-fulfillment character, you sad little bigot? Everyone else does. H.L. Mencken once wrote that “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” I can’t think of anyone to whom that applies more than my own mom, and the mothers on my friends list, with the incredible demands on time and spirit they face in their efforts to raise their kids, preserve their families, and save their own identity/sanity into the bargain. Shit yes, Zamira Drakasha, leaping across the gap between burning ships with twin sabers in hand to kick in some fucking heads and sail off into the sunset with her toddlers in her arms and a hold full of plundered goods, is a wish-fulfillment fantasy from hell. I offer her up on a silver platter with a fucking bow on top; I hope she amuses and delights. In my fictional world, opportunities for butt-kicking do not cease merely because one isn’t a beautiful teenager or a muscle-wrapped font of testosterone. In my fictional universe, the main characters are a fat ugly guy and a skinny forgettable guy, with a supporting cast that includes “SBF, 41, nonsmoker, 2 children, buccaneer of no fixed abode, seeks unescorted merchant for light boarding, heavy plunder.” You don’t like it? Don’t buy my books. Get your own fictional universe. Your cabbage-water vision of worldbuilding bores me to tears. As for the “man’s world” thing, religious sentiments and gender prejudices flow differently in this fictional world. Women are regarded as luckier, better sailors than men. It’s regarded as folly for a ship to put to sea without at least one female officer; there are several all-female naval military traditions dating back centuries, and Drakasha comes from one of them. As for claims to “realism,” your complaint is of a kind with those from bigoted hand-wringers who whine that women can’t possibly fly combat aircraft, command naval vessels, serve in infantry actions, work as firefighters, police officers, etc. despite the fact that they do all of those things– and are, for a certainty, doing them all somewhere at this very minute. Tell me that a fit fortyish woman with 25+ years of experience at sea and several decades of live bladefighting practice under her belt isn’t a threat when she runs across the deck toward you, and I’ll tell you something in return– you’re gonna die of stab wounds. What you’re really complaining about isn’t the fact that my fiction violates some objective “reality,” but rather that it impinges upon your sad, dull little conception of how the world works. I’m not beholden to the confirmation of your prejudices; to be perfectly frank, the prospect of confining the female characters in my story to placid, helpless secondary places in the narrative is so goddamn boring that I would rather not write at all. I’m not writing history, I’m writing speculative fiction. Nobody’s going to force you to buy it. Conversely, you’re cracked if you think you can persuade me not to write about what amuses and excites me in deference to your vision, because your vision fucking sucks. I do not expect to change your mind but i hope that you will at least consider that I and others will not be buying your work because of these issues. I have been reading science fiction and fantasy for years and i know that I speak for a great many people. I hope you might stop to think about the sales you will lose because you want to bring your political corectness and foul language into fantasy. if we wanted those things we could go to the movies. Think about this! Thank you for your sentiments. I offer you in exchange this engraved invitation to go piss up a hill, suitable for framing.
Bessie Stringfield (1911-1993): The Motorcycle Queen of Miami
She was a great woman. Full entry here. Book here. Art notes after the cut.
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That’s why I love Daria because Jodie Landon is one of the most iconic black characters of the 90s
An icon in every sense of the word, Josephine Baker is the bisexual goddess we all truly aspire to be.
She dated Frida Kahlo, was a top cabaret dancer and helped to defeat the Nazis in France through her work as a resistance spy.
The extraordinary American hero wasn’t always destined for greatness though.
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/05/meet-the-bisexual-black-cabaret-dancer-and-spy-who-dated-frida-kahlo-and-helped-defeat-the-nazis-in-france/
“young adult dystopian novels are so unrealistic lmao like they always have some random teenage girl rising up to inspire the world to make change.”
a hero emerges
In a bid to engage communities outside the park fence,a reserve hired 26 local jobless female high-school graduates, and put them through an intensive tracking and combat training programme. Kitted out in second-hand European military uniforms, paid for by donations, the women were deployed throughout a 40,000 hectare reserve.
The numbers suggest the approach works. In the last 10 months the reserve has not lost a rhino, while a neighbouring reserve lost 23. Snare poaching has dropped 90%. [x]
(Fact Source) For more facts, follow Ultrafacts
Rare Photos of Black Rosie the Riveters
During World War II, 600,000 African-American women entered the wartime workforce. Previously, black women’s work in the United States was largely limited to domestic service and agricultural work, and wartime industries meant new and better-paying opportunities – if they made it through the hiring process, that is. White women were the targets of the U.S. government’s propaganda efforts, as embodied in the lasting and lauded image of Rosie the Riveter.Though largely ignored in America’s popular history of World War II, black women’s important contributions in World War II factories, which weren’t always so welcoming, are stunningly captured in these comparably rare snapshots of black Rosie the Riveters.
Meet Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the black woman who invented that rock and roll sound
You know what’s sad, before I even read this article I was ready to refute this because I grew up believing Chuck Berry created Rock and roll. It’s said how so many knew of this great woman yet none spoke on her greatness.
I also discovered Big Mama Thornton, who’s another hugely influential early inventor of rock and roll — I’m pretty sure Hound Dog was originally popularized by her, before Elvis stole it.
Love Sister Rosetta Tharpe! #BlackGirlMagic
A few of her performances:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bX5mzdihs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR2gR6SZC2M
Also I heard she was bisexual…
Happy Black History Month!