Why I Stood Proudly Today With Blkseagoat

Just for last Sunday, I joined the DC sub culture of the Washington Redskin Fans. It was my first professional football game and honestly, it was a bit different for me to be surrounded by so many Caucasian people at an event in the original Chocolate City. And it became clear pretty quickly, that white people take their football extremely seriously. The same people that you see in suits and ties during the week, were out there dressed in Redskins garb drinking beer, hooping, hollering and acting a fool. I think having a ticket to a pro football game kind of gives you that right to do that and I ain't mad at 'em. Whatever floats your boat. So when you're in Rome you do as the Romans do, and me and mine (without the beer, we are just naturally loud), acted a fool too. We were initially obvious newcomers to the community as we had to be the only people in the stadium with no Redskins gear on and all of us even my husband, the extrovert, were a little unsure about pro football game etiquette. But we soon became acclimated and everyone, including my nine year old, was singing "Hail To The Redskins" and chanting, "You Suck" to the Philadelphia Eagles (yes grown folks were yelling that). So all was well and we were having a great time. And then it happened! At first I couldn't believe it, I thought the sound guy must have made a mistake because surely they were not playing the actual song "Superman Dat Ho" over the loudspeaker. Surely someone would realize the error and quickly cut it off and apologize to the crowd. But nooo ! Fed Ex Stadium and the Washington Redskins played that song in all it's glory for everyone, including my nine year old, to hear. I watched the response of the people around me. A couple of African American kids jumped up to do the dance, people cheered all around us and then there was this particular group of white guys in the row behind us. They seemed to sneer and jeer while this song was playing. I can still see the sneer on this one guy's face because just for a few seconds we made eye contact. If I close my eyes right now, his face is as plain as day. His expression said to me, "It's not my daughter these guys are calling hos it's your daughters. And if you don't care, I certainly don't care. Bring on the hos!" I took a mental stand at that moment. It became quite clear to me what Reverend Coates and the enoughisenoughcampaign.com is all about. I understood Gina's whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com outrage concerning the Dunbar Village travesty and her disgust at the silence about the assaults on women and children of color. I looked at my innocent nine year old who knew how I felt about the song but who still could not conceal her delight in them playing it. She doesn't have a clue about the demeaning, disgusting lyrics and that is the subtle way our children are romanced by the blatant degradation of our women. I understood at that moment that my daughter is not a ho and not a bitch and it is about time I stood up for her and the attack on her by the entertainment industry. At that moment I also understood that it was my duty as an African American woman to protest our "leaders" silence about the hate crimes inflcited upon our women. I had a cause to fight for. Does the name Stepha Henry mean anything to you? Probably not! As far as I know she is still missing, or course nobody reports about her so I don't know for sure. So today I participated in my first demonstration ever and I stood proudly beside Blkseagoat of http://blacksapience.blogspot.com/ and stood for me, my daughter, your daughter, our Moms, our sisters, our aunts, our grandmothers and every woman who has had enough. Blkseagoat had signs for us and had information about Dunbar Village for us to pass out. We yelled about our daughters and about hate crimes against women. We were a part of history today and I am grateful to Blkseagoat for having the guts and the desire to get the permit that allowed us to speak for change. Immediately, it made a difference in at least one little girl's life. My daughter was excited to hear that, today, I stood for her. She may not fully understand why but she knew it was good. Hopefully, in the long term, we will make a difference in the treatment of women of color everywhere. So tomorrow, I will join Reverend Coates for the first time and take my daughter with me to march against BET and their exploitation of African Americans. My daughter will march tomorrow for a change for your daughters and for your sons. And shame to the Washington Redskins and Fed Ex Field for exploiting and sanctioning the degradation of women. Did I mention that they played that song twice?