Check out the following blog/article and share your thoughts:

http://www.shadowandact.com/?p=14378

when you take a minute to think about it, and not necessarily right after reading the article, it all makes sense. There isn't a single person (black or white) who hasn't thought about this "ideal". It seems like we've only limited ourselves to imagining what it would be like "to live on the other side", despite all the triumphs our people have professed and accomplished. Yet it still remains nothing more than an "idea" to most thinkers. To think is to have ideas. To have an idea is to believe (and ideas can take you places) Africa would be (and not just be thought of as) the cradle of civilization - A land filled with promise, prosperity, and oportunity. we would no longer have to call ourselves, or be referred to as African-Americans/Europeans/Asians. These references are a constant mitigation of our self-worth. Misogyny would no longer perpetuate and flourish in the confines of our own people. We wouldn't look at our neighbors with hate and disdain. We would see ourselves as equals before looking to others to acknowledge that we have a place in the world. Our parents would teach us that school counts as an option to success, rather than leaving the bodies and minds of the youth to waste away. There's so much that we should all be doing to better ourselves as Black People. There are so many things that I have thought about and said "what if...?" too.

We have to think and believe that we still have a shot; that we all have a shot. Overcoming all the hardships we face as a community shouldn't be left on the shoulders of the few who choose to think, to believe, to have an idea.

@ JAT: Thanks for sharing this! I loved this article....I was truly humbled at the idea that our femininity (black women) has been a public relations nightmare!!! It has to be noted that just as the social standard in this country is to isolate and oppress the black man, so too is this country focused on destroying the most precious element of a black woman's identity: her femininity.

Hmph!!!!!!! ???????? Brothas? What are you doing to preserve the black woman?

Much has been stated here and everywhere else how the black woman should love, respect, and even submit to the black man. What are his responsibilities to her????

-ms.b

I saw this posted some time ago about 42% of sisters who are married in comparison to 21% of all white women. I thought this clip was interesting. Let me know your thoughts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJGMAhWpDF8

Correction: 42% of all sisters who are unmarried

@ ccmartin:

Is it your assertion that the article was "wishful thinking" about living on the other side?  And that the exercise denigrates the accomplishments of black people?  Maybe the author was attempting to highlight the pervasive and covert ways in which black women are denigrated by just about everybody.

@ msbnmd:

Girl, don't get to asking questions that will get no answer.  The fastest way to get a meaningful conversation between black men and black women derailed is to actually expect something of the brothers.

More importantly, though, this article can serve as a wake up call to black women who - consciously or unwittingly - participate in oppressing and devaluing black women.

@ rick:

LOL, stay on topic!  I saw the video, and right now I am on "black women marriage woes" overload.  Simply said, it's a problem that both black men and black women have to be committed to working towards. However, as long as black women are disproportionally (in comparison to black men) committed to "black" families, then the status quo will not change.

SImply put, I am concerned that I may never get married if I focus exclusively on dating black men, but I refuse to lose any more sleep over it. 

But to tie the video back to the article, it is my unscientific opinion that black men refuse to acknowledge that they participate in the oppression of black women.  All are woes are of our own creation, according to black men and society at large, and thus we're always (solely) to blame if we don't eliminate those woes.  You can imagine how frustrating and limiting that kind of obstacle is in attempting to get our issues heard/understood, let alone resolved.

I read the articles & blogs...listen to the convos, and despite the bleak picture that folks try to portray when it comes to the African American Woman...I am and will always be: PROUD to be a Black Woman. 

With or without a man, or the so-called priviledges afforded white women....that pride never waivers.

@ Dashon:

Well said!  I wouldn't be anything other than what I am.  Although sometimes that necessitates unplugging from the world and taking a vacation.