Something Within

I’m wearing red today like I promised because I wanted to show my solidarity with women and men everywhere who are committed to standing up to violence against women and speaking out to what’s beginning to feel like open season against women of color.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because I am outraged at hearing that just within this summer alone a mentally challenged woman was tortured and raped in West Virginia, a mother was forced to perform a sex act on her son at Dunbar Village in West Palm Beach, Fla, a young woman in Chicago named Nailah was murdered and her murderer has not been found, a song like “Superman that Hoe” is playing in the ears of our children, a young actress named Keke Palmer (of Akeelah and the Bee) was refused a record deal because her mom Sharon refused the record label’s efforts to turn her daughter into a porn star.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because “every 3 minutes a woman is beaten every five minutes a woman is raped/every ten minutes a lil girl is molested.”

I’m wearing red today like I promised in memory of my maternal and paternal grandmothers, Marie Brown Weems and Lou Willie Clark Baker, who, died as a result of violence. The official cause of death for my paternal grandmother, Marie Brown Weems, was tuberculosis. The unofficial cause was from a body and spirit weakened by the slaps and beatings my grandfather gave her when he came home drunk and broke. My mother’s mother, Lou Willie Clark Baker, died from a gunshot wound intended for one of her sons.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because while my heart goes out to Evangelist Juanita Bynum for all the hurt and heartbreak she’s endured as a result of her husband beating her in that Atlanta parking lot, she is not the new face of domestic violence. That spot is already taken. There’s a woman who’s lover just smacked her for the first time sometime while I was typing this post.

I’m wearing red today like I promised to support the work of My Sister’s Keeper up in Boston who this week have brought women from various tribal regions in Sudan together there in Boston to discuss ways they can put aside tribal differences and come together to help find a solution to the civil war in their country and to put an end to women being rape as an act of war.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because I remember the red shoes my father bought me from K-Mart when I was four years old which I loved vociferously even though they were too small and hurt my feet. Red shoes have been a weakness of mine ever since.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because when I walk into church tonight to teach the bible study class on “Bynum and the Bible” I want the women to know that I mean business.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because red is the color of power and boldness.

I’m wearing red today like I promised because I’ve never seen a woman who didn’t look good in red!

This is not about Condoleezza Rice who is an enigma to many of us. (That’s another post for another day.) It’s about putting aside our questions about who she really is and bracketing whatever questions we have about her confounding loyalties to this Administration. It’s about urging the Secretary of State to intervene on behalf of the men, women, and children dying from genocide and starvation in the Sudan.

The Bush administration took a desperately needed first step last month when it announced its “Plan B” sanctions against the Sudanese government. Now Secretary Rice must use the upcoming meeting in France on Monday with French, Chinese and other leaders to increase the pressure on Sudanese President Bashir. Secretary of State Rice will have an unprecedented opportunity on Monday to help end the genocide when she attends a meeting about Darfur with top officials from the U.S., China, France and other key nations.

Click here to send a message to Secretary Rice today.

Again, this is not about Condoleezza Rice. It’s not about what First Lady Laura Bush said about Condoleezza Rice back in December 2006, nor is it about the fact that some reporters think it newsworthy to report that the Secretary of State wears a 6 dress size but the same reporters have never once commented on the shoe size or in-seam measurements of any of the men on the Cabinet. This is about the power Condoleeza Rice has as the first African American female Secretary of State to see to it this coming Monday that the U.S. combines forces with France and China to end the tragedy in Darfur.

The people of Darfur have waited long enough, more than four years in fact, for world leaders to make a concerted effort to end the violence. Secretary Rice must make sure Monday’s meeting in Paris marks the beginning of sustained, unified world diplomacy.

So you see, this really is not about what you and I personally think about Condoleezza Rice. This is about heeding the warning our mothers once gave us: “You better mind what you say about people and how you treat them. You may just need those same people to put in a good word for you one day.” This is about seizing the moment to let Secretary of State Rice know how much we are counting on her as one of the most powerful women in the world to help bring relief and aid to women being raped, men being slaughtered, and children left orphaned by war in Sudan.

Lend your voice in asking Secretary Rice to use this one-of-a-kind opportunity to urge China and France to join forces with the U.S. on Darfur diplomacy.

Click here to send your message to Secretary Rice by the end of today, Friday, to make sure Secretary of State receives your message.

This is about our understanding that each day that we wake up on this side of freedom, we have a gift that comes with a responsibility. This is about our understanding that when it comes to what’s happening to our sisters in Darfur we are indeed our sister’s keeper.