September 2011
1 post
2 tags
March 2011
0 posts
We Have Moved!
Perhaps a very long delay, but Refuse The Silence and our blog have moved to one happy location: http://www.refusethesilence.com
Please come visit us there for all things relating to academia and women of color.
If you want to read more opinion/personal blog posts, visit our founders site (also on Tumblr) at http://www.morganerichardson.com
See you there!!
August 2010
6 posts
One-Up: Refuse The Silence Submission
When oppression becomes a competition, let me in last; I’m not fast enough with my words and qualifiers - I stutter-step on the curb and back away from the chasm, A back and forth motion from one body to another, The rupture between adopted-brown-woman and American-accent. At first, we danced around each others’ assumptions: “Are you white? You’re Jewish? I see.”...
5 tags
Question the College Con
Choosing the right college can be a very long and strenuous process. Between filling out applications and weighing out the tuition expenses, credit transfers and the proximity factors, there’s a lot to deal with. How do you know which school is the right choice? Will you even fit in at your selected college? Is the tuition affordable? Is the cost of attendance actually worth it? There are...
2 tags
Educational Stand: Obama's Educational Reform Plan
President Obama fully addressed the issues behind the new educational reform plan a few weeks ago. In his speech Obama tackled some of the most important and controversial issues of the new educational plan. Obama stressed the importance of competition, accountability, mentors, and testing. His goals are to see improvement in the most troubled schools in the nation. It’s not going to be a...
2 tags
Kat Stacks
Kat Stacks is a woman but most probably don’t see her as a that at all. Most people would probably more readily call her a “hoe,” relegating her to a less valuable, sub human status. Such is the fate of Kat Stacks and many other women who fall outside of the realm of acceptability with respect to sexuality. They are marginalized to be outcasts, especially among other females. Kat Stacks...
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Gay Men & Their Relationship To Womyn’s Bodies
So today, while on my beloved Twiitta (read: Twitter) I started to have a conversation about the relationship between womyn and queer men. Often times, womyn get harassed by gay men; not all gay men of course. However, womyn get a constant barrage of touches, feels, lingering looks, luring eyes, foul gestures, and snide comments from gay men. It’s as if gay men feel that they can touch and...
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The Tribal Law and Order Act
I recently learned about the Tribal Law and Order Act being passed in Congress. I wonder what this really means for Native communities. The effects of colonists and early US government agents disturbing the harmony of Native communal justice are still felt today. Instead of helping to restore these original systems, activists are relying on the oppressive US judicial institution. The Tribal Law...
July 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Shirley Sherrod: Condemned and Consoled
Pursued and punished for words that were taken out of context. A video clip edited to persuade the public that former department of agriculture official, Shirley Sherrod, is a cold cut racist. But what the clip really showed was a perfect example of poor journalism. At first glance Sherrod’s words seem to suggest that she didn’t want to completely help poor white farmers. It’s only after you...
7 tags
Prostitution and Sexual Politics
For so long feminism has been the place where an old debate exists: liberation versus exploitation. Sexism & misogyny tells us that a woman should be modest, reserved & quiet. In this society, showing off a little skin can get a woman labeled anything from a hooker to slut. In this post, I want to discover the former label and what its implications include. Parlour also featured an...
6 tags
Hard Time for the Humanities
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a degree in humanities doesn’t guarantee you a job right after college. In this economy even those who major in science and math related fields aren’t guaranteed a job.
The question remains, is getting a degree in humanities really worth it? After all with tuition costs constantly rising, pursuing the more uncertain path in your college career seems like a...
4 tags
You Little Virgin
So the other day I was browsing through Bitch magazine’s newest blog entries when I came across an article about a situation that many of you may be familiar with; it was about a woman selling her virginity over the Internet. Click here if you would like to read the article for yourself. Anyway, the article got me to start analyzing the concept of virginity. Virgin - someone who has never...
June 2010
12 posts
4 tags
The True Cost of College
Going to college is generally a requirement now-a-days. If you’re trying to make it in the corporate or white collar world then attending college is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss out on. But there’s one problem…what if you can’t afford it?
College tuition has been steadily increasing for years, and no matter which college you plan to attend, tuition expenses are one thing you’ll...
13 tags
Sexual Violence, Systematic and Institutionalized
I’ve always wondered why violence that involves guns or fists is specifically labeled “violence” while violence when the weapon is sexual is labeled abuse. In my opinion, violence carries a more powerful connotation that abuse just doesn’t have. Throughout this post, I will use the phrase “sexual violence” instead of sexual abuse to show that this type of...
6 tags
How do we measure educational success?
One thing I clearly remember about Obama’s platform is that he ran for education. He wanted to make sure that every student had the means and opportunity to go to college. Julianne Ong Hing’s article “Education’s Race to the Top” outlines Obama’s controversial plan to reform America’s education system.
Education Reform has always been a tricky thing for me. As an Educational Studies Minor, I...
5 tags
Black Womyn, Christianity, and Sexual Repression
I have a few people that I follow on Twitter that are self-proclaimed “Christians.” They also happen to be womyn. This week, their tweets about their faith got me to thinking about myself when I identified as a Christian, how ashamed and dirty I felt when I allowed my mind or body to experience anything sexually related. Sex is one of the behaviors that connect all living things....
9 tags
Delusional Diversity: A Media Misrepresentation
A recent blog entry on chopsentials raised some very valid points on the job of the media in particular with the portrayal of diverse characters in Hollywood movies. It should come as no surprise that a majority of the characters in Hollywood productions are white.
You can turn on the TV right now, flip the channels, and eight times out of ten fail to spot a person of color starring as the main...
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Knowledge is Power… Knowledge is Poison…
How much of a risk would you take to get to school? How high a price would you put on your education? What if it meant going against tradition or putting your life in danger?
It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to go through all that just to get to class, but what’s even harder to comprehend is why anyone would put such effort into making it impossible for someone else to go to class.
...
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“What Should African American Studies Students...
Okay, so I love, love, love African American Studies Programs! Maybe, because I go to a school where nothing of the sort is seriously offered, by more than 3 faculty members that is. Or it could just be because I enjoy learning about Black culture, mostly because it is my culture and I haven’t gotten to learn about it in the way that I have white culture. So when I stumbled upon this article...
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Too Sexy For A Banker?
Last summer, Debrahlee Lorenzana was fired from her job as a banker at a Citibank branch. She has filed a lawsuit against Citibank stating she was asked to leave because her male bosses deemed her to be “too sexy.”
Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Village Voice writes, she was told “she should not wear classic high-heeled business shoes, as this purportedly drew attention to her body in a manner that...
8 tags
Summer Series: Women of Color Talk Sex
I have a philosophy. That as women of color, and especially as black women, we need to talk about sex more.
However, before I explain this particular theory, allow me to introduce myself.
This summer I will be writing a summer series on women of color and sexuality for the Refuse the Silence blog. I am so happy to be working with Refuse The Silence and Ms. Morgane Richardson’s efforts to talk...
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Your Skin Color is Offensive
A school in Arizona has refueled the fire that decades of race relations had attempted to paint over. The school mural meant to promote better health and green energy use, has only further prolonged the truly despicable point of view of a select few who still -despite the current state of the union and over fifty years of fighting racism- fail to see past the color lines.
Officials at the...
6 tags
Are You My White Savior?
What would the world be without our relentless, selfless folk who dedicate their whole lives’ to helping the lives of others? Let me rephrase that: what would the non-Caucasian world be without a pure helping hand lifting them from their own demise? The non-white world would be doomed to failure without that privileged hand, no?
A bit ridiculous isn’t it? However, these are the messages that...
May 2010
6 posts
6 tags
I am an elitist. I am a woman of color.
I hold my breath and swallow my spit as I say this—I am an elitist. I spent my childhood having playgroups, going to etiquette classes, attending tea parties and, later galas, with like-minded mothers and their children. In this mother’s organization, which I have been involved in for as long as I can remember, not only were the mothers like-minded, but also like-skinned.
My parents, who have...
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Intern Blogger: “the pretty black girl…”
At my college there is a long practiced senior tradition— a last hurrah, of sorts—the crush list. Towards the end of the semester posters and advertisements are taken down, and grand displays of affection are seen in its place.
Crush lists, they’re called.
In its bare bones, it is just a list of people one is “crushing” on, from a nameless face in the dinning hall; to the person they are...
7 tags
The Young and The Feckless: An Interview with...
Refuse The Silence’s Morgane Richardson, was interviewed for Bitch Magazine by J Maureen Henderson! Take a look:
I stumbled across Morgane Richardson’s Refuse the Silence project via a link on Twitter. Immediately, it made me think of a discussion in the comments section of an earlier Y&F post about where the stories and conversations around the non-archetypical Millennial experience...
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Guest Blogger: Raped At Tufts University
I never would have believed I would be in this place at the age of 23. I had the course of my life clearly planned out since the age of 6. Back then I wanted to be a “doctor or a lawyer” and as I graduated from high school I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer. The general steps were non-negotiable: graduate from prep school, go to an elite college, immediately go to a prestigious law...
6 tags
Ode to Black Women
Domonique Johnson is getting her degree in Child Development and American Studies— with a concentration in African American Studies from Tufts University. During her undergrad, she was head of the female step team, on various cultural boards, the editor of the Black Literary Magazine, and head of the Black Student Board— thus helping her to become a campus leader, stronger writer and...
6 tags
WatchMarilla Li is 21-year-old student currently attending Barnard College. She contacted Refuse The Silence via Twitter and put together a podcast submission for us. In her beautifully executed video, Marilla discusses the intersection of sex, race and identities.
Marilla writes:
“This is my submission video for Refuse The Silence: Women of Color Speak Out, a project started by Morgane...
April 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Refuse The Silence covered in Girl Drive →
Is it possible the colleges’ attempts to bridge racial divides are making things worse?
Refuse The Silence isn’t just about changing our education system. The focus is on giving these women a microphone to speak out. It’s not always about the right or wrong action to take, but about Women of Color knowing that they can speak, and that someone will listen.
“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice...”
– Audres Lorde
WatchRefuse The Silence is a growing multi-media project that captures the honest experiences of Women of Color currently enrolled in elite liberal arts colleges throughout the United States. It is a space for Women of Color to tell their own stories using their medium of choice, be it through film, essays, music, poetry, etc. The stories are being compiled with the goal of presenting a suggestive plan...
12 tags
I HAVE BLACK FRIENDS: Racial Tension Among...
Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to attend a conference entitled, Young Women, Feminism and The Future: Third Wavers Then and Now. The Riot Grrl’s original founder, Allison Wolfe, Editor-In-Chief of Bust Magazine, Debbie Stoller, as well as the co-authors of Manifesta, Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, came together to discuss shifting generational...
