The title of this entry is metaphoric of a symposium I attended entitled "Sexuality and Africana Studies." The discussion focused on the issue of sexuality as it surrounds, penetrates (pardon the pun), and permeates African Studies from music, to matrimony, from politics, to pedagogy, and of course from man, to woman.
There was a great panel of speakers:
What really got me shook up were several shockers beyond the "normal" shockers one might expect from Dyson et al.
"We have to 'out' some of our Black leaders," said Melinda Chateauvert, such as George Washington Carver or Carter G. Woodson. That threw us all for a loop!
Rebecca Maynard let us know know that the true reason many welfare mothers were not going to school or work was not because of the oft assumed laziness, but for reasons such as staying up all night keeping rats off your baby or dealing with a hostile so-called man who is threatened by your intelligence and independence. That stopped everyone in their tracks.