Comments on: Black Women Are Worth 10K

By: Lala

Lala — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:51:50 +0000

This is a very disturbing case. I would like to think it was crazy and extreme. I know some people in these type relationships and I wonder what type of discussions they’re having

By: Renee

Renee — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:46:36 +0000

This story is part of the reason why I encourage WOC to tell their stories and the stories of our sisters. If we don’t who will tell it for us?

By: gatamala

gatamala — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:01:48 +0000

good lookin’ out Renee

THANK YOU

Professor Tracey, you are 100% on point.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:12:02 +0000

Renee – thanks for writing this and publicizing it. What a horrible story – if it weren’t for the internet I feel like some cases wouldn’t get any publicity at all.

(I’m sorry about the crap you’re having to slog through in the comments section, too.)

By: benihana

benihana — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:19:08 +0000

But so-called black female ‘activists’ are JUST as guilty as everyone else they are soooo damn busy whining about rap and hip-hop yet they NEVER attack Hollywood for their negative potrayal of black women. That also goes for black women in the media if there is some story like a Cynthia Mckinney or Whitney Houston or Naomi Campbell where they can make snide,malacious comments or make fun of them then thye JUMP at the chance. Yet noone utters a peep about Ryan Harris or Nailah Franklin or Tamika Houston or Cherisse Iverson that goes double for Oprah who preachs all this ‘down with the sisters’ crap yet IGNORES stories involving black women but if there is a Jonbenet or Elizabeth Smart or Nicole Simpson or Natalie Holloway Oprah is the first one there! Maybe we have NO value because a lot of black women don’t give a RAT’S ASS about each other and will run each other over the first chance we get.

By: NancyP

NancyP — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:38:59 +0000

peri9 is right that there is relatively little U.S. media attention to the crime of bride-murder occurring in India. There is relatively little U.S. media attention to much of the world.

The classic example of “white woman victim” reporting is the intense attention to the Central Park Jogger case, and the total neglect of a nearly simultaneous case where a black woman uptown got thrown off an apartment roof by a significant other. Front page NYT, vs not mentioned.

This particular case of racist Indian prof. at HBCU, “undutiful” son, way-way-way-out-caste daughter-in-law, hit-man, case reopens 8 years later – it sounds like one of those “ripped from the headline” Law and Order convoluted storylines. I am surprised that the news had to be rescued from the editor’s delete button – this isn’t the usual “anonymous” black-on-black crime getting a sentence or two in the local news section.

By: Professor Tracey

Professor Tracey — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:07:44 +0000

When I made this post on my blog, I was hoping for what Renee was. That folks would get mad. Now, I get it, Black women just don’t count. How did this debate get about “honor killing” of Indian women or leaving out other woc? I am amazed at how many blog stories I have read about black women being raped or murdered that turn into a discussion about someone else or something else. Black women can’t even rate maintaining their own blog discussion thread.

I bet if you did an search, you would find more material on honor killings, than the murder of black women in America. This was a heinous crime. It’s a hate crime, period! It would have been an honor crime, if Mr. Rai had the guts to do the crime himself. He hired black men to murder a black woman and that fact alone should have people pissed.

Nobody cares when a black woman dies. It’s getting to be frightening!

By: zoe

zoe — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:12:24 +0000

@foo – for the history of western civilization in a nutshell, think about how white people have more often done the things you claim “all blacks/africans” do. & then think critically about root causes.
maybe then you will understand the situation & culture that fosters a black feminism that is necessary for survival for those of us who are black and woman.
oh, but it’s not our job to teach you.

By: Longform Links - Black Hair, Feminism, The Lives of Women of Color at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:01:09 +0000

[...] Renee (Womanist Musings) for Feministe – Black Women Are Worth 10K I came across this story at The Root but it was originally posted at Aunt Jemima’s Revenge. Chiman Rai So hated blacks that he hired a hit man to kill his black daughter-in law, Sparkle. The case was labeled an honor killing. Eight years ago Rajeeve came home to find his daughter unhurt, and his wife brutally murdered. When asked by police during the investigation of his wifes death about his parents, he referred to them as “a little racist”. This from a man that told his wife, and her family that his parents were dead, rather than deal with their racism.Eight years later the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty, and a little girl is growing up without both of her parents. Yes I said both, you see since the death of his wife, Rajeeve has remarried an Indian woman, and has not bothered to see his daughter. It seems that Sparkle’s death taught him which bodies matter in this society. […] [...]

By: miwome

miwome — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:12:14 +0000

Um, foo, please stfu. All black people? Really? And you participated in that “lighter is better” construct yourself: An Indian man (typically assumed to be “lighter” than your average black man, whether or not that’s the case), acting out of the goodness of his heart to give some Lazy Black Guys a lift, gets beaten and killed due to their Violent and Amoral Culture. Hoo, boy, never heard this one before. Quick, everybody, it’s on the news! Grab the popcorn and lock the doors!

Not to mention it’s the death of a man that has you so enraged. (Not to say that men’s lives are not valuable; they are, of course. But this post is specifically about the invisibility surrounding the deaths of WOC.)