Black Women Who Say Black Men Are Systemically Oppressing Them Are Liars

Yesterday I wasted quite a few hours on Twitter engaging with a bunch of delusional Black women who honestly believe that Black men are systemically oppressing Black women.  Read that again….SYSTEMICALLY OPPRESSING Black women.  This whole discussion started as a result of a few back & forths between rapper Talib Kweli & myself in regards to a tweet he posted about Black men.

Black men have and continue to oppress black women. Not just in activism either. If u don’t see it, u do it. https://t.co/6LB19rcp0m

— Talib Kweli Greene (@TalibKweli) February 25, 2016

Side Note:  Twitter debates are won by the person with the most followers regardless of what is being said.  That’s it.

Anyways, if you know anything about Talib Kweli outside of him being a professional rapper, he is also known for being a social justice activist.  So when I read his tweet saying “Black men have and continue to oppress black women.  Not just in activism either.  If you don’t see it, u do it.”, I asked him for clarification to that statement.  You see when I hear an activist use the word “oppression”, I immediately think about systemic oppression.  So I tweeted to him the following:

Somebody ask @TalibKweli what rules, laws, etc have Blk men setup to oppress Blk women.

— Gil (@LightSkinHero) February 25, 2016

That tweet sent a few dozen trolls my way.

To make a long story long, Black women were coming out of the woodwork to tell me that Black men are abusive, misogynistic, we prefer non-Black women, we practice patriarchy, it’s our fault we make more money than Black women, we are trying to silence Black women…and on & on & on & on.  My notifications were blowing up with mostly Black women basically telling me nothing more than how much they despise Black men.  That’s it.  Not one of them could give me a solid concrete answer to my tweet explaining exactly what type of system have Black men set up to exclude Black women from participation in society.  Not one of them.  Instead, most of these Black women went the ole “All Lives Matter” route, meaning, I’m addressing a tweet Talib Kweli made specifically in reference to BLACK MEN oppressing Black women & in response I got a bunch of Black women purposely choosing to ignore the direct statement about Black men.  They decided to lump Black men into the ALL MEN category in order to explain women being oppressed.  But Talib Kweli’s tweet wasn’t in reference to ALL MEN.  He made his statement about BLACK MEN.  So why couldn’t these women who chose to engage me respond to my tweet about BLACK MEN somehow systemically oppressing Black women?  Why?  Because it doesn’t exist.  That’s why.

Side Note:  After awhile Talib gave a vague ass response as to what he meant by oppression.  His response was in reference to oppression meaning “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control”.  Basically abuse.  But like I mentioned earlier, outside of rapping he’s mostly known for speaking about SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION, yet I’m supposed to magically interpret his tweets to subject matter outside of what he constantly tweets about.  Hell, just getting him to clarify the context of the word oppression was a struggle.  But I digress.

I’m just going to address some of the tweets I received from some Black women in response to my questioning of Talib Kweli.  All of these tweets I’m about to show you stemmed from me asking specifically about Black men SYSTEMICALLY OPPRESSING Black women.

“Every 19 hours a Black woman dies at the hand of an intimate partner in the US.  More than police.” — @FeministaJones

Feminista Jones, that’s an absolute tragedy & I’m glad you are doing what you are capable of doing in order to make people aware of this tragedy.  But please explain to me how this relates to systemic oppression.  How are Black men preventing Black women from participating in society?  Have Black men collectively set up a system to prevent abused Black women from seeking outside help from law enforcement or anybody else?  Explain how this tweet related to my question about systemic oppression.  Doubt I’ll be getting a response.

“@LightSkinHero benefitting from male privilege.  That’s the main one.  The most broad.  Use that and your imagination to discover examples.” — @TalibahYa

I find it funny that your Twitter handle just happens to have Talib’s name in it.  But anyways.  Do males benefit from male privilege?  Of course.  Nobody is disputing that.  But explain to me what systems have Black men set up with the sole intent of legally excluding Black women from participating in society?  Me having & benefitting from male privilege does not mean I’m capable of setting up a system to prevent a Black women from doing anything.  If you want to be mad that I’m a male & I have male privilege, fine be mad.  But don’t pretend like Black men are just out here creating laws & devising systems to exclude Black women.  It’s not happening.

“@LightSkinHero just b/c you haven’t created the rules doesn’t mean you don’t have your own ways of oppressing Black women.” — @TalibahYa

Once again, what “ways of oppressing Black women” have Black men created that can legally prevent Black women from participation in society?  There are none.  You are confusing the terms.  I’m speaking specifically about systemic oppression & you are aimlessly going on about oppression in terms of abuse.  Nobody argued against SOME Black men (AND SOME BLACK WOMEN) being abusive.  My whole discussion was about SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION.  The development of actual systems backed by law & society to exclude groups of people from various aspects of life.  How in the world did that fly over your head considering I tweeted out exactly what the hell I was talking about to you numerous times?

“@LightSkinHero Since when is patriarchy, sexism and misogyny NOT systemic?…” — @bonnniehale

This was probably the one tweet that caused me to get flooded by a bunch of delusional Black women.  @bonnniehale, provide for me just ONE instance of Black men using patriarchy, sexism & misogyny to implement some type of system designed to exclude Black women from various aspects of society.  Just one.  Can Black men be sexist & misogynist?  Sure.  Can Black men practice patriarchy?  Sure.  Have Black men purposely established a system by way of law (or just even culture for that matter) to prevent Black women from trying to be all they can be in life?  HELL NO.  So quit with the foolishness.

“@LightSkinHero Systemic is that we are taught from birth that we are ugly, our hair is “bad” by this culture.” — @lotyslove

Black culture didn’t teach Black people to view Black women as ugly or having bad hair.  White culture did.  Show me how Black men are applying this frame of mind to prevent Black women from excelling in life.

“@LightSkinHero Systemic in that Black males are taught that disrespecting their counterpart (turn on the radio) is acceptable.” — @lotyslove

Show me how Black men being disrespectful to Black women is preventing Black women from excelling in life.

“@LightSkinHero Systemic as in not seeing any Black faces in textbooks, coloring books & cartoons growing up.” — @lotyslove

Show me the Black men using this to prevent Black women from excelling in life.

“@LightSkinHero Look at the Black men fawning over light skin & non kinky hair, deliberately marrying non black women, having non black children.” — @lotyslove

Show me how Black men are using this to prevent Black women from excelling in life.

“@LightSkinHero I blame this culture for perpetuating self-hatred.  No one said shit about BLAMING black men.” — @lotyslove

But my whole conversation was about Talib Kweli’s tweet in regards to Black men, which is how you ended up putting my name in your tweets.

“@LightSkinHero Black me don’t prevent me from doing shit in the US.  I get jobs before they do.  Not a concern of mine.” — @lotyslove

Then why in the fuck are you complaining on a topic about whether or not Black men are systemically oppressing Black women?  You’re just here to complain about Black men period probably because a Black man or two fucked you over in the past.  Get over it.  Move on.

In summary…

I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that some Black women absolutely despise Black men just because we are men.  They try to use this “male privilege” argument in reference to Black men as if we had a say in how society chooses to treat Black women.  The reality is, most of these Black women are walking around with emotional baggage from previous dealings with dusty ass niggas.  So now every Black man these Black women encounter that do not 100% subscribe to their way of thinking is somehow trying to oppress them.  If you want to address the issue of some Black men being abusive to Black women, then address it.  You have every right to.  I don’t know of one Black man who is trying to silence Black women from speaking up about that issue.  I’m most certainly not.  Matter of fact, I actively look for strong Black female voices to contribute to this site to address these issues since I’m under the belief that, who is better qualified to talk about the struggles Black women go through…Black men or Black women?

When Black women start tossing out bullshit excuses to support the lie that Black men are systemically oppressing Black women, now we’ve crossed into the territory of just outright stupidity.  There isn’t one system in place established by Black men that can legally exclude Black women from participating or excelling in life.  Not one.  If you have a problem with how society goes about placing Black men & women on the totem pole of power, then address the issue of white supremacy which affects ALL BLACK PEOPLE regardless of gender or sexual orientation.  Sure we have our own internal issues amongst Black men & women, but don’t sit up here & try to pretend like Black men collectively have a hand in saying what Black women can or can’t do with their lives.  If you support that flawed thinking, you are just making up shit just for the sake of making shit up just so you can get attention.

I’ll ask my question one more time:

Somebody provide me just ONE example of Black men establishing a system backed by laws & society designed to purposely exclude Black women from participating or excelling in life.  Just give me one example.