Someone many Black women don't but should know

"Her story was forgotten for centuries, buried under mounds of dusty racist documents by the Afrikaner government of South Africa, sloshing in a jar of formaldehyde in a museum in Paris. But slowly she has been rediscovered, by women in South Africa, in England, in the United States...they have written plays and poems, made films and speeches telling her story in the hopes of reclaiming her torturous past. Her name was Saartje Bartmaan, or at least that's what her captors called her."
- unknown

I know I normally don't get all deep and shit on y'all but I felt compelled (first time I've ever used that word) to reveal a character flaw about myself. This is a woman whose story I came to know last summer at a film screening at the S.A.L.S.A. offices in downtown DC. With me being a Black woman who's a huge hip hop head (Y'all like that alliteration right there lol), I'm often listening to artists with different styles and lyrical content. A lot of these rappers don't display an awareness of social and cultural issues other than poverty affecting the Black community. Many of the artists, ultimately, are rather misogynist in their words and actions. I find myself guilty of many of the same actions. As a lesbian, I think displaying a misogynist attitude, even on occasion, is 100% worse than a heterosexual male who is a chauvinist 24/7/365. Why? Because I should know better. Nonetheless, thanks to me being called by some of my women friends, I'm improving and watching what comes out of my mouth more. Am I going to become a feminist, probably not. However, learning of Saartjie (pronounced Sahr-key) Baartman's story was a step in the direction of at least becoming more sensitive to the often damaging perspective society has of Black women.

Also, check out The Saartjie Project. Two women I know personally are apart of this collective (What up Binah and Margaux!) and there was actually a performance over the weekend that I found out about kind of late (My bad y'all). Please don't be upset with me if this is something you would have loved to attend. Thanks!