Saturday, March 29, 2014

Does ‘Ebony’ Magazine Condone Bigotry?

I don't know. What I do know is that they have been a platform for stupid for a while. I stopped with Ebony.com when they printed the "Stop Telling Women How Not To Be Raped" piece. It was perhaps the most asinine article I had read in a long time and to top it off was perhaps one of the most dangerous pieces of writing for women of that year.

I waited for people who I thought were objective and thinking to condemn that piece as the hetero man hating piece it was. Didn't happen. Of course, today, more and more people are seeing pieces like that for the trash that it is. The day's of these folks trafficking in lies are numbered. But the point being is that Ebony.com is run by people, women I assume, who have a lot of degrees but little sense, and apparently, class.

The latest episode of bigotry comes at the hands of Ebony Magazine Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux. According to their website, Ebony “is the No. 1 source for an authoritative perspective on the Black-American Community…
Well I'll give Ebony.com credit for saying "an authoritative" rather than "the authoritative" but I assure the reader that "authoritative" ought to be in quotes. Large ones.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this exchange is the condescending nature and supposed moral superiority Ms. Lemieux displays when she notes: “Oh great, here comes White dude telling me how to do this Black thing. Pass.”
This condescending tone is unfortunately a way too common trait among African-American women. It is essentially: I have arrive, shut the fuck up. And believe me when I say it, this treatment is not reserved for "white dude" it is for black males, particularly heterosexual ones, who "step out of line" as well. The Twitter exchange is typical of what you will find among women who are afflicted with this disease. I have seen it played out many times (at times been the target of it).

If Ebony.com wishes to be "an authoritative perspective" I would suggest that if it doesn't excise the factually deficient writers on staff, it at least seek out and add people with different positions. Kinda like a library. It just has the books, doesn't mean they endorse everything they hold. And if Jamilah wishes to continue to make an ass of herself in public, she should at least create a pseudonym on twitter (and wherever else) to do so and spare the company the grief of guilt by association.