In 1855, a young enslaved black woman named Celia killed a white man who raped her.
A Missouri judge stated that an slave woman had no right to refuse her “master.” She was later convicted of murder and hanged.
To overcome racial inequality, we must confront history.
—Celia was tried, convicted, and ultimately executed for killing her owner. Celia confessed: She had tried to put a stop to what had been five years of sexual abuse. At the center of the trial was a dramatic confrontation over the legal standing of enslaved women. Did an enslaved woman have the right to defend herself against sexual assault?
Drawing on Celia’s own words, her court-appointed defense team said “yes.”
Prosecutors, the trial judge, jurors, and the state high court all rejected Celia’s claim.
Enslaved women did not have the same right to self-defense accorded to free women under Missouri law, they concluded.
To allow such resistance would have been to strike at the heart of slaveholders’ power. It also would have recognized the legal personhood, honor, and rights of enslaved women, undermining slavery’s legitimacy.
In subsequent years, legislators and jurists in other slave states made more explicit that sexual coercion of slaves was not a crime. It is this state sanctioned sexual assault that is a baneful legacy of slavery. Even today, it contributes to erroneous ideas about black women as lacking honor and “virtue,” making them especially vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Comedian Ali Siddiq said Netflix turned down multiple comedy specials he submitted. After those rejections, he told his manager to stop pitching his work to them.
He bet on himself in 2022 and decided to independently produce his comedy specials and release them on YouTube.
Seven comedy specials later, he has accumulated over 300 million total views while doing his comedy show in arenas and is now promoting his new special like this:
“No subscription needed.”
I respect the pettiness 😂
Black gay individuals are foundational to the civil rights movement and the Harlem Renaissance. Pushing them out of conversations harms Black culture itself. We must embrace intersectionality and include all voices. #Intersectionality#BlackCulture#Inclusion
Rachel Hampton lost more than 53 pounds but her stomach would not go down. Then she fainted. An MRI revealed she had 23 fibroids so severe there was almost no uterine tissue left. She was told she would likely need a hysterectomy. She got a second opinion and fought for her uterus. Surgeons removed 21 fibroids and her uterus was preserved. Black women are more likely to develop fibroids at younger ages and experience more severe symptoms than other groups. If something feels wrong, please go get checked. The earlier you know the more options you have.
Colman Domingo says he and Chadwick Boseman “burst into tears” on the set of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” after filming a scene where Boseman’s character questions God. The 2020 musical-drama turned out to be Boseman’s final project.
“I’ll never forget this moment. It’s a moment that I feel like will stay with all of us. I started asking him the question over and over again. And then he exploded with this rage about God. We went into this fight scene, and then George called cut, and then we just grabbed each other and burst into tears. I didn’t know he was ill, and we didn’t know what was going on, but we cried and held each other.”
https://t.co/v1hrFlbxL8
Bombshell: In an interview with Don Lemon, Attorney Ben Crump admits that text messages were deleted from Nolan Wells’ cell phone before it was returned to his parents…
George Johnson, a hair-care magnate who rose from a sharecropper’s cabin to found the first Black-owned company listed on a major American stock exchange, and who made a fortune on products like Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, died has died at 99. https://t.co/zGYqxwquBM
Bill Maher, I’ve always been a white supremacist. Just from the left.. he because he fucked a few black women over the years that given him the right to use the N word. And promote white supremacist propaganda against the black community. I never liked him from day one never trust him.