REPARATIONS NOW!- In this segment, Black Feminist Women ask: Do you think it is true that women have more integrity than men, when it comes to the electoral process? What are the issues of today you believe could be ameliorated or resolved through the electoral or political processes? Barack Obama raised the hopes of a generation of young voters with his 2008 run for the presidency. Some have been disappointed with what he has been able to accomplish on their behalf, and have now joined the ranks of those already disillusioned by the American political process. Frustrated with the “lessor of two evils” choices provided in this years’ presidential campaign, at least one organization in New York City, is encouraging Black people to write in “Reparations Now” as their vote for U.S. president in 2016. What do you think of this idea? In this clip, we explore our thoughts on the American political process, including the impact of being disillusioned by it. Venita Goines Walker uses the case of healthcare reform to argue that no good can be accomplished through the political process. Georgette Moses and L. Michelle Odom grapple with the idea of writing in “Reparations Now” as our choice for U.S. president in 2016. We also identify some issues we think could be made less harsh through the political process, such as mass incarceration, campaign finance, Consumer rights and protections, and entitlement programs. In tonight's Circle, we focused discussion on “Chapter VII: The Quest for Woman Suffrage (Before World War I)” in Paula J. Giddings, "When and Where I Enter." L. Michelle Odom was the event's moderator. She was joined by Conversationalists Kim Brandon, Venita Walker and Georgette Moses. ---------------------------------------------- Summary: “Although the Black woman’s contribution to the suffrage campaign is rarely written about, Blacks, including Black women, had a more consistent attitude toward the vote than Whites…Afro-Americans maintained a political philosophy of universal suffrage, while Whites, including women, advocated a limited, educated suffrage after the Civil War. Additionally, Blacks, including men, had fewer conflicts about woman’s voting and thereby challenging her traditional role.” In “Chapter VII: The Quest for Woman Suffrage (Before World War I),” Paula Giddings briefly explores the role of Black women in fighting for the woman’s right to vote, including the ways in which this ran counter to the goals of white women, who largely advocated for a more limited suffrage, and demonstrated, through a strategy of “expediency,” their willingness to throw black women “under the bus” in pursuing their own race-based interests. “By the 1900’s, Black suffrage clubs were to be found all over the country…” The first Black women’s suffrage organization founded in Illinois, the Alpha Suffrage Club, was started by Ida B. Wells in 1913. The National Association of Colored Women (NACW), “had a special suffrage department, headed by Sarah Garnet, which represented a force of forty thousand Black women,” and the NAACP had its own suffrage department. The fight for women’s suffrage (including Black women), before the first world war, included prominent voices like Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Harper, Sarah Garnet, Fannie Barrier Williams, Victoria Earle Matthews, Anna Julia Cooper, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Bishop John M. Brown, and W.E.B. Du Bois. ---------------------------------------------- Music: “Lights Out” by Audiobinger Free Music Archive http://freemusicarchive.org ---------------------------------------------- Featured Art by LaShun Beal. ---------------------------------------------- Session 6 of The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle broadcasts live February 2 to July 19, 2016, (Extended Break 3/22 through 5/3/16), reading Paula J. Giddings' "When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America,” (2nd edition, 2007). L. Michelle Odom and Randie Henderson, co-hosts. ----------------------------- Email: CONTACT OurBlackStory@gmail.com Google+: JOIN - The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle (Community) http://bit.ly/1Y7S6kU Youtube: SUBSCRIBE to The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle's page and view videos – http://bit.ly/1nkgcM3 LIKE us on Facebook, where we will re-post group news, topics, videos, etc. http://on.fb.me/21IfDhS #GlobalBlackFeministReadingCircle #WhenAndWhereIEnter #RealPeopleRealTalk A Reading For Change Production. Reading OurStory…together.

• published: 21 Mar 2016
• views: 42