Are you a Queen or a Bad Bitch? Your choice.

BITCH!!! Who are you calling a bitch? I am not a bitch. I am a Black Woman. I am a woman of immense worth. I am a Queen!

I have never understood why the word bitch has been used to describe women. I am not a female dog. I do not care how unreasonable or annoying I may be at the time. Calling me a female dog is the ultimate disrespect to me. Now, many women have done what many have tried to do with the N- word. Many women now have tried to change the negative meaning and connotations associated with the word bitch. They have embraced the word bitch as a positive word or compliment. They now call themselves “bad bitches.” This word is supposed to be a way of them complementing themselves. I guess “bad bitch” is supposed to mean hot or sexy.

What happened to just saying I am hot and sexy? Why are we getting the name for a female dog added to the way we compliment ourselves and each other. I am sorry to break it to you ladies, but calling yourself a bad bitch is calling yourself a bad female dog. I do not get it ladies.

I would never call myself a bad bitch. I would also never disrespect my fellow black women by calling them a bitch, or compliment them by calling them a bad bitch. It is a hateful word that has for years been used to disseminate misogyny, hate and the degradation of women. Why use a word built on so much hate to compliment yourself? Think about it ladies. it does not add up.

The adjectives, I use to describe myself are beautiful, intelligent, determined, motivated, queen who believes in herself and knows her worth.

Ladies, you deserve to be respected by all. You also need to know how to respect yourself. There are far more respectful ways for you to compliment yourself, for others to compliment you and for you to compliment others. Describe yourself the way you should be and present your beauty as one solidified on knowing you are worth respect and good treatment. -M. Millie

Rebuke Prejudice!

I can not stand black people they are ghetto! I can not stand Jews they are cheap! I can not stand Asians they are nasty! I can not stand Latinos they are all immigrants!

Prejudice. We all are guilty of it. Why? We are victims of our background, upbringing and experiences. All we can strive to do as adults and people is break the prejudices we have with knowledge and history. Once we learn the truth about where our biases and prejudices come from, it will be easier for us to lessen these ideas.

Honestly speaking, I used to be very biased towards Jews. I did not trust them and thought all of them were out for world domination. Now, I know better. All though some of my ideas and viewpoints have not changed, I do not believe all Jews are the same. Just like I do not want to be judged as a horrid person because of the actions of other blacks.

I in no way am excusing any group for the atrocities and unjustness they have committed. Every group whether racial, ethnic, religiously, nationally etc. has committed injustices against others. EVERYONE IS GUILTY!

However, point blank, I do not believe in demonizing a race, ethnic group, or religion for the actions of the few. I feel like when you have that kind of attitude, that is when you become IGNORANT!

IGNORANCE and me do not get along. You should not get along with ignorance either and should use ever opportunity to dissolve it from your life. I strive to supply my brain and memory bank with varied information to learn, grow and understand the world around me. Close mindedness limits progression.

Do not be limited by ignorance. Also, treat people by a case by case basis. Yes, there are trends that many communities exhibit, but remember trends do not equal absolute characteristics.

All groups of people regardless of what classification they belong to should be treated according to who they are not what class they belong in.

The ERADICATION of bias is impossible. Out of the womb biased was kissed upon us by society, culture and our families. However, opening our minds to knowledge helps us understand that all of our biases are misguided and based on lack of knowledge.

Inspire yourself to change. Harboring hate, resentment and bias does not help you develop in the future. However, enlightening yourself on why these groups do or act the way they do. Educating yourself with history immersed in contemporary society builds you and helps in lessening your bias.

Who have you been biased against? WHY? What have you done to combat your prejudice for this group? Do you seek to combat your prejudice? Whats your take? -M. Millie

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks ~African American Pioneer

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an African American poet. She was the first African American author to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950. She was also appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. She later became the first African American woman appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, in 1985. EVERYDAY is Black History.

Brooks was raised in an educational family, for her mother was a teacher. As a youth she encountered racial prejudice growing up in Illinois. She attended an all high school and was then transferred to an all black high school, she finished high school in an integrated school. These changes however did not stop her from working hard educationally. She graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Brooks growing up in Illinois, educational experiences and encounters with racial prejudice influenced her literary work

By the time she was sixteen, she had compiled a portfolio of around 75 published poems. At seventeen, she started submitting her work to “Lights and Shadows”, the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Her poems, many published while she attended Wilson Junior College, ranged in style from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues rhythms in free verse. Her characters were often drawn from the poor of the inner city. Brooks published her first poem in a children’s magazine at the age of nineteen.

By 1941, Brooks was taking part in poetry workshops. Inez Cunningham Stark, an affluent white woman with a strong literary background, trained her. The group dynamic of Stark’s workshop, all of whose participants were African American, energized Brooks. Her poetry began to be taken seriously. In 1943 she received an award for poetry from the Midwestern Writers’ Conference. Brooks’ first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), published by Harper and Row, earned instant critical acclaim. She received her first Guggenheim Fellowship and was included as one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in Mademoiselle magazine. With her second book of poetry, Annie Allen (1950), she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; she also was awarded Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize. After, President John F. Kennedy invited Brooks to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962. She then began a second career teaching creative writing.

Brooks has taught at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, Clay College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

    Gwendolyn Teaching at Columbia University. 

In 1967 she attended a writers’ conference at Fisk University where, she said, she rediscovered her blackness. This rediscovery is reflected in her work In The Mecca (1968), a long poem about a mother searching for her lost child in a Chicago apartment building. In The Mecca was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry. On May 1, 1996, Brooks returned to her birthplace of Topeka, Kansas. She was invited as the keynote speaker for the Third Annual Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council’s “Women of Distinction Banquet and String of Pearls Auction.” A ceremony was held in her honor at a local park at 37th and Topeka Boulevard.

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was truly a pioneer in African American poetry and creative writing. She championed for the acknowledgement of black literacy. She also strived to portray the black experience in her body of work. She is a woman to be admired. She is also a woman who KNEW her worth. She did not let circumstance limit her ability to prosper. She created her own opportunities and effectively utilized the opportunities presented to her to become better. Family, remember to use education as a vessel to reach your goals and be passionate in your work. Also, use every challenge and life experience as a means to communicate whom you without trepidation. Let your beliefs and passion shine through always. ~Know Your Worth~ -M. Millie