Sista Souljah... just watch it..

I found out about Sista Souljah in a chapter of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop by Bakari Kitwana explaining how Bill Clinton publicly repudiated her statements about racism in America. Interested sparked, by the story and by her name alone, I came across this video along with a few others of her speaking in interviews and discussions... WOW!!!! THIS WOMAN IS ON FIRE!! I am in awe.. her clarity, her poise, her courage, her articulation, her passion, her truth, SHE SPEAKS!! I oftern feel a voice like hers is inside of me, a voice unafraid to speak the truth, the truth that makes so many white people, so many men, so many people sooooo uncomfortable...

My skin is white, yes. But this does not make me an enemy. It makes me accountable. It is my responsibility to learn as much as I can about the history of my people, and the horrors they have inflicted upon other people, and do everything in my power to try to make right these harms. I don't know enough of her to know whether her politic is strictly racial, or if it is intersectional, if she breaches racial borders and speaks to issues of gender, of class, of sexuality... Regardless, the pure fierceness / fearlessness of her voice inspires me to find my own truth and learn to stand behind it. I am afraid to speak our against patriarchy because I fear men will think I'm speaking against them, and I don't want to be misinterpreted. Something that Sista Souljah says in the beginning of one of her interviews to the white male interviewer really stood out for me: "I don't make work for you to interpret it. I make for black young people so they can understand that we are at war, that we have to be strong minded, that we have to be unafraid of expressing ourselves and gettting what we want in this society." Amen Sista.