“Protect Black ladies” is greater than only a catchy chorus or hashtag to repeat on social media. It’s a real-life accountability that calls for our utmost consideration — an argument creator Shanita Hubbard so unapologetically makes in her debut ebook, “Ride or Die: A Feminist Manifesto For the Well-Being of Black Women” ($24).
Published by Legacy Lit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc., Hubbard’s highly effective learn unpacks and dismantles the hip-hop ride-or-die trope that, for many years, has left Black ladies exhausted, depleted, and stretched far too skinny on the subject of proving our value by how a lot labor we offer others. To emphasize why this mind-set is harmful to our well being and happiness, the ebook — which has already obtained excessive reward from Gabrielle Union and Tamron Hall — urges readers to fully get rid of the ride-or-die complicated, utilizing hip-hop because the backdrop to discover all of the social norms which have confirmed dangerous to Black ladies.
Combining her years of experience on hip-hop and feminism, Hubbard bares essentially the most private particulars about her life to information Black ladies towards a path of therapeutic. In flip, her susceptible evaluation builds a case for why the tradition many people have grown to like would not at all times appear to like us the way in which we deserve.
“Ride or Die: A Feminist Manifesto For the Well-Being of Black Women” was launched on Nov. 8 and is now accessible for buy. Read forward to take a look at an unique excerpt of Hubbard breaking down the divide inside Black womanhood as highlighted by the 1998 basic album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
I used to be too younger to understand the Black lady magic of feminine pioneers like Queen Latifah and Monie Love, which made me love Lauryn much more. Rappers like Queen Latifah and Monie Love have been intersectional feminists, though the phrase was not a part of the mainstream lexicon within the late ’80s. Both Monie and Latifah understood and rapped in regards to the overlapping types of oppression that made Black ladies’s struggles distinct from our brothers. But although I knew their music, I did not join with them, a minimum of not in the identical approach I did with Lauryn. Lauryn’s lyrics mirrored my very own ideas and echoed many who Kia shared with me. Especially when it got here to these “different” Black ladies who slept with males “too shortly.” This sentiment was my gold normal—much more so because it was echoed by a acutely aware rap “god” like Nas in his tune “Black Girl Lost.” “N*ggas thirst you, you simply let em harm you and go away / What up ma, fronting such as you naive.”
There was at all times some model of this line handed on to me as a cautionary story. Lauryn sounded precisely like Nas, which made the primary verse in “Doo Wop” my favourite.
It’s been three weeks because you have been on the lookout for your pal
The one you let hit it and by no means referred to as you once more
. . .
Plus, if you give it up really easy you ain’t even foolin’ him
If you probably did it then, then you definately’d in all probability f*ck once more
Was Tamera listening to this? There have been so many lyrics that confirmed who the “birds” have been! “Showing off your ass ‘trigger you are considering it is a development.”
“Girl, sure,” I stated wanting over at Tamera, waving my hand to the beat in reward. Couldn’t Tamera see that “queens” like us weren’t birds? We have been a distinct sort of Black lady, the type who was worthy of respect. Lauryn was making that clear. We stayed in our room listening to the complete CD and I continued to fall in love with the main points of Lauryn’s music. I had at all times cherished the query that she posed on the finish of “Doo Wop”: “How you gonna win if you ain’t proper inside?”
My buddies and I have been a part of Lauryn’s tribe and win-ning. We have been acutely aware Black ladies—we might quote Carter G. Woodson in our sleep, have been dedicated to “fix- ing” the racist legal justice system, most well-liked open mics over golf equipment, did not sleep with males “too shortly,” and had pure hair.
Plus the brothers referred to as me queen. They consistently stated I used to be nothing like these “different women,” and I thought-about it a supreme praise. Being referred to as a queen was their recognition of my Black lady magic. In 1998 we weren’t utilizing the phrase “Black lady magic” but, however the essence of it was at all times clear and queen meant that Black males noticed that in me, and it was invaluable. My self-worth was related to being considered by males as separate from these different women, which was solely a softer approach of claiming I’m higher than these women. Or a minimum of that is the way it registered to me.
I swam in Lauryn’s phrases as a result of she validated the piece of me that wanted to be thought-about separate and unequal to different ladies. Being thought-about completely different from the opposite women who had intercourse too shortly, wore straight hair and weaves, have been loud, rocked tight garments, and frolicked within the golf equipment felt like I had the “proper” model of Black womanhood that might equal success, love, male adoration, and respect. It felt like I used to be successful like Lauryn acknowledged. It took me a very long time to know that if successful meant “acutely aware queens” have been granted permission to make use of a skewed normal of Black womanhood outlined by males to marginalize different sisters, then maybe we wanted to lose.
Excerpted from “Ride or Die: A Feminist Manifesto For the Well-Being of Black Women” by Shanita Hubbard. Copyright © 2022 by Shanita Hubbard. Available from Legacy Lit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Image Source: Courtesy of Legacy Lit Hachette Book Group