By Catherine Meeks, originally published in Hospitality, the official newsletter of the Open Door Community

“When you strike a woman, you strike upon a rock, a rock that will not break,” said the Zulu/Xhosa women who protested the implementation of pass laws in Pretoria, South Africa. This is a truth that men such as Mitch McConnell, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Spicer and others are nding to be true. Though we might feel that women are un- der siege as in no other time, that would be far from the truth. Women have never had their rightful place in this land or in many others, though there are small corners of the world such as some West African villages and among some Native American communities where the roles of women were highly valued and the archetypal feminine was seen as important.

A few weeks ago, I was red from my ten-year-long columnist position with the Telegraph in Macon because the publisher did not like the tone of my truth telling. After all, a woman, and a Black one at that, needs to make sure to be pleasing. He was upset be- cause the Alt-Right folks in Trump’s administration were criticized in my column and he seems to have taken it personally. Prior to my ring, McConnell silenced Elizabeth Warren and had the audacity to be shocked when she kept talking for a while in spite of his efforts. In addition to these incidents is O’Reilly’s comment about not being able to pay attention to Maxine Waters’ speech because of her “James Brown hair.” Sean Spicer added to the litany by telling April Bryan, a reporter asking a question that he did not like and did not bother to answer, to “stop shaking your head.” All of these reject the notion that women should be pleasing to males and not speak or act in ways that are unsettling or threatening to them. Continue reading “They Struck a Rock” →