Not Buying It: 'Keep Calm and Rape' Shirts on Sale

Keep Calm and Rape a Lot.
Keep Calm and Knife Her.
Keep Calm and Grope a Lot.
Keep Calm and Hit Her.
Keep Calm and Choke Her.  
   
Yes, these shirts were available on Amazon.com and produced by a company called Solid Gold Bomb. (Founder Michael Fowler actually pretended not to know the company was even selling the shirts.)

Hey, Solid Gold Bomb, #NotBuyingIt. #TwoPersonBoycott.

Read more here at the Good Men Project.

'All My Babies' Mamas' May Be The Trashiest Television Show Of All Time

It looks like Oxygen will begin airing 'All My Babies' Mamas,' a show centered around Atlanta rapper Carlos Walker, who is better known as Shawty Lo of the group D4L. We're sure 2013 is shuddering already. How can Oxygen even begin to top shows like The Bad Girls Club, I'm Having Their Baby, and Dance Your A*s Off?

Mr. Lo had his first child at the age of 15 and has not stopped since. 

Currently, he has 11 children with 10 different women.

However, as you can see from the series' title - these are not women, they are 'baby mamas'. 

Lo says he always knew he would have a lot of kids - he just didn't know he would have so many baby mamas. "It just happened."  

After the first few children arrived, we'd like to think he knew how they were made and where the baby mamas came from. 

Mr. Lo is no longer romantically involved with any of these women. In fact, he has a new girlfriend, age 19, who is the same age as 4 of his 11 children. One of the mothers questions whether the new girlfriend is actually a child of one of the original baby mamas. Sigh. Another mother refers to Lo as merely a "sperm donor."

"To you guys, he might be known as a rapper but here in Atlanta, he's known for having 11 kids and 10 baby mamas," narrates E'creia. She is known as "The First Lady Baby Mama" because she controls the rapper's finances and the other women say she is the best at getting money out of him. The First Lady introduces the other women as "The Fighter Baby Mama", "The Jealous Baby Mama", "The Wanna-Be-Bougie Baby Mama", "The No Drama Baby Mama", "The Shady Baby Mama", and (as expected?) "The Baby Mama From Hell".  

Drama begins and the power struggle ensues. 

The mothers report Lo lied about exactly how many children he had during the courtship stages. "They were coming out like presents. Every Christmas a child was coming out," one mother says. He sounds like a real winner to us.  
 
The mothers say the system with "The Black Hugh Hefner" is complicated but it works. All of the Baby Mamas even get together at least once a month. Aww.

The kicker of the pilot is probably when Mr. Lo sits down to prove he can name all of his children in order. He is not successful and skips over one of his sons after a few tries. 

Let us hope that Mr. Lo has learned how to 'wrap it up' and Oxygen will gain some sense and wrap up this tragedy of a show before it hits the airwaves next year.


You can watch the pilot here but we urge you to join our #TwoPersonBoycott of this trash.  

"Make Me a Sandwich" T-Shirt Graces The Shelves at Wal-Mart

Yes, you can buy this t-shirt at Wal-Mart. No, you probably shouldn't.

Enough said.

It's official: Two Person Boycott.

Read more here.

P.S. And because one half of Strong Black Woman worked at Wal-Mart briefly before college and saw how women employees were paid a full dollar less than men and who was reprimanded for even thinking about collective action, we join the #notbuyingit movement without reservation. 

    

Distributing Domestic Violence Via Camera Phones

Domestic violence used to occur behind closed doors, but technology like video bloggers, Twitter, camera phones, and TMZ create a culture almost used to seeing these depictions. 

Access to this violence didn't begin with those horrible photos of Rihanna after she was attacked by that hoodlum Chris Brown, or when football player and Dancing with the Stars alum, Chad Johnson headed-butted his wife Evelyn Lozada.

This type of violence occurred behind closed doors for probably as long as doors existed, but the difference between then and now is viewers' access to the violence and viewers' ability to chime in, to "like," and comment about these harrowing acts.

Remember after the 2012 Grammy's, when some of Chris Brown's fans invited him to beat them too? (SBW is engaged in a Two Person Boycott against Chris Brown).

@sarahleighlove

I'd let Chris Brown beat me up anytime ;) #womanbeater

@ilySunnyLove

Chris brown can beat me any dayyyyy damn he's so sexy

Recently, two videos have been circulating the Internet that feature men striking black women. A camera phone video that has garnered the name "The Uppercut," shows a Cleveland bus driver arguing with a female passenger. Witnesses to the violence claim, 25 year old Shi'dea Lane, struck and spit on the driver Artis Hughes, who responded by punching her in the face and physically throwing her off of the bus.

Another video shows 19-year-old Def Jam rapper, Lil Reese arguing with a woman in her home when he threatens to shoot her. After she calls him the b-word and the n-word, he punches her in the face until she falls down. He then proceeds to kick her, drag her about the floor, and stomp on her body. He claims the the video is years old and was posted by "haters." She says it occurred last year and the violence all began when she asked him to leave her home.

Is our culture becoming desensitized to these acts? Why are some people defending and cheering these men on?

Read more.

Racist Memorabilia For Sale on Etsy

Golliwogs

Are you shopping for a golliwog? Perhaps a holiday gift for your racist friends and family members? Well look no further than Etsy. You know - "your place to buy and sell all things handmade."

You can buy a cute fabric mammy golly. (Emphasis on the word "cute.") You can also find a a Shoeshine Black Boy. (This one has a "Sambo type smiling face cute." Yes, "face cute" not "cute face".) There's an Aunt Jemima figurine and even a Black Cannibal Headhunter. There are over 70 items for you to choose in all.

Don't want "vintage"? You can even knit your own golly with a patten sold on the website.

A few hundred people have signed a petition asking Etsy to enforce its own policy of barring hateful items from its site. The policy, which went into effect in January 2011, says it will be "specifically disallowing items that denigrate people or promote hate." The policy says:

 We no longer allow items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views.

The petition says:

Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of this issue is that that one would be hard pressed to find racist items of any other demographic on Etsy, which begs the question, Why is it okay to sell items that dehumanize and denigrate those that fall into the category of ‘black people'; and would there be the same lack of response were these items offensive toward the LGBTQQ community, or Asian community, or any demography that is "more likely" to be shopping or selling on Etsy?

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. The petition is here. Join SBW in our Two Person Boycott.  

Abercrombie & Glitch: Fake Abercrombie Website Brings Back its Racist Past

An impostor Abercrombie & Fitch website fooled consumers by selling fake "Abercrombie & Fitch N***er Brown Pants." Links to the website quickly went viral thanks to the social media network Facebook, and A&F soon shut down the fake website.

But there is a reason so many people believed the website was real.  

We can't forget your racist hiring policies and the offensive products you were selling just a few years back, Abercrombie.

Let's review Abercromie's history:

1. Hiring only white people. In 2009, A&F settled a $40 million class action lawsuit for forcing all minority employees to work in the stock room while allowing white employees to be on the sales floor. CBS News reports that a former A&F employee stated, "A corporate official had pointed to an Abercrombie poster and told our management at our store, 'You need to have more staff that looks like this.' And it was a white Caucasian male on that poster."

2. Selling Racist t-shirts using pseudo-Chinese character font. I can't imagine who approved the Two Wongs Can Make it White, Abercrombie & Fitch T-Shirt. In April 2002, A&F launched a line of racist shirts with offensive Asian stereotypes. The shirts featured Asian caricatures engaging in forced stereotypes of kung fu fighting and offensive religious references to Buddha. In response to these shirts, Los Angeles based cartoonist and "Angry Little Asian Girl" creator Lela Lee told the LA Times, "We're used to depictions of Asians as kung-fu fighting, fortune-cookie-speaking, slanty-eyed, bucktooth servants. We're really tired of it."

3. Selling Sexist t-shirts. Back in 2005, A&F produced sexist shirts and received some push-back from teen groups who staged "girlcotts." A&F shirts had slogans such as, "I had a nightmare I was a brunette" and "Who needs brains when you have these?" printed across the chest.

4. Sexualizing young girls.  And let's not forget about the A&F "push up padding" bikinis for children that came out in 2011. Enough said.

Given Abercrombie's sordid history, it was not implausible to believe the N-word pants were real. Needless to say, SBW maintains its Two Person Boycott of that store. We encourage you to join us.

Grammys and Twitter Recep: Fans Say "Chris Brown can beat me"

Chris Brown performed twice on last night's Grammy awards show.  He also won the Grammy for Best R&B album for "F.A.M.E."  [It's supposed to stand for Forgive All My Enemies - see below for my stance on forgiveness.]

But let's not forget about another type of fame from a few years ago.  In his acceptance speech, Brown even thought to thank his fans who stuck with him after his well-publicized beating of ex-girlfriend, Rihanna.

I'm not quite sure if his performances were any good because as soon as he came onto the screen, I turned away.  No beaters are allowed in my personal life or on my television.  I wondered why the Grammy organizers couldn't find any other less violent performers.  

[I mean, there's a reason why R. Kelly doesn't get booked on major awards shows anymore - because we still don't forgive him.  Okay, maybe that's not the reason but that's how it works in my mind.]

Apparently, some of Brown's Twitter fans seem not to see his beatings as a bad thing and many of them claim to welcome it.  That's right. 

As not to call these female fans insensitive, misguided, or just-plain ignorant, you can judge for yourself.  These girls need some serious help because domestic violence is NOT LOL-worthy.  #womanbeater - Really?  An 'honor' if Chris Brown hits them?  

I hope that if these ladies ever do have an experience with domestic violence [if they have not already], they are not so forgiving.  Let's work to break the cycle and not make light of it.  While it is not okay to blame the victim, let the rest of us continue to NOT forgive and NOT forget. Join us in our Two Person Boycott. 

@sarahleighlove

I'd let Chris Brown beat me up anytime ;) #womanbeater

@ilySunnyLove

Chris brown can beat me any dayyyyy damn he's so sexy

@KatyyMyLady

I know Rihanna didn't like it much, but Chris brown you can punch me in the face all you want. #sorrynotsorry #sexy

@Muffin5685

Chris Brown u can punch me in the face any time u want!!!! #facialsweats

@kelllllx

RT @nicolebodea: RT @ridddlesss: Any girl that hates on Chris Brown is stupid. Do you realize that it would be an honour if he hit you?

@alexwilsnn

chris brown your sexy you can punch me in the face anyday #imkindanotkidding

@____Tanisha

I just want Chris Brown To Be My Boyf he can beat me all he want lol

@melissamyx

chris brown looks soo hot with blonde hair! he can beat me any day