"Midnight" by Sistah Souljah: A Disrespect and Bashing or Empowerment to the Afro American Female

[hidaya]

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Delete Post Manage Blog I was so excited when I heard that Sistah Souljah was writing this book "Midnight". While in my Afro Studies class, a female bought up how she portrayed black women in the book. The discussion went from sister to sister who had read the book. Each one had a differet stereotype and I kept thinking she was going to create that stand up sister that would help wipe them all out. Then one sister said what I didn't want to hear. That she had married him to a Japanese girl. That shit made my top fly off! Are we serious Sistah Souljah is all I kept thinking. I went on Amazon.com and read the first three pages and was infuriated. First page goes on about how he came from culture, that whores are never cherished, blah blah blah, and from that tone I knew where he was going.

With all that said, why am I writing this blog? Well I'm tired. I'm tired of these ignorant ass, sell out authors that find it fit to portray sisters as gold digging, nag, no manor having, no upbring women. Not only is it unfair to us, but is promoting the other races to hold tight their ignorant stereotypes. Why do they always feel the need to promote this stupid "interracial dating" movement. We only make up 13% of this countries population. After jail, drugs, drive-bys, the down low, and AIDS the available brother pool is extremely low. Try and find a motivated brother with knowledge of self, and ha you can basically expect to be single. So what I want to know is, are Japanese girls not sluts? Do they not have whores, pimps, drug dealers, and poor people. Do Jamaicans, Haitians, Dominicans, Panamanians,
Trinidadians, Guyanese and etc not have the same problem?

So Sistah Souljah gives this weak ass excuse about her trying to show black women that we can be more than pussy and loud mouths is so fucking ignorant. So who are the black girls supposed to be with?I am boycotting this book and telling everyone I know to boycott it. If Sistah Souljah calls this motivation, we'll call her in 10 years when our beautiful well reserved black daugthers can't find a husband because their with the non black girls who have "self-respect"!

Can any sistahs or brothers feel me?
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[hidaya]

I did read enough to know that I don't like what I read. Again you don't have to participate if you don't agree or feel that the issue is pointless. I can rant on about what I want and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. You actually put the battery in my back to continue.
LesYpersound said:

stuff like this happens all the time here and plenty of other boards (it's a part of the fun... for me anyway, lol)--also there's an actual discussion about the book and how the OP should read the book before ranting about it in the feminism or love/relationships sub-forum--where Amanda/hidaya cross-posted this same topic.

[Rosenda]

Funny, when I read it years ago, I didn't think she was bashing ALL sisters. Just the ones that she was pissed off by the most. I honestly thought she pointed out those characters as a warning that any woman but especially a black woman should not live her life that way or interact with others that way, women or men in her life.

I think of it this way.......if what she said or the way she wrote it angered or insulted you, it's still something you can learn from. If you were wanting to write a book and tell a story, it would teach how you DON'T want to portray another black woman, whether or not she was the heroine or villain in the book.

I do feel thought your right on point that there are WAY too many writers doing stories about the fucked up bad girl character of the woman. That shit sells too well, but it's not just among our community, those kind of books are popular among Latinos and White people too. And what about those tripped out slighty disturbing whole industry of sexualized girl figures in all the Japanese anime books, magazines, and films? That kind of this always bothered me just as much as the proliference of bad girl sistas in books and film being too popular.


There are probably more than a couple reasons for that kind of woman stereotype being popular (also showing up in person on Jerry Springer and Maury Povich and similar Spanish language talk shows that broadcast from Miami FL and Mexico). Part of it might be "we show the worst in people just to entertain and get big ratings" and part of it might be basic disrespect for women. People who have only been burned by a few women and they assume all the rest of the women in the world are all behaving that way inside so they spout that shit out into the world in books and movies and television shows and music videos.

[Gullah*Gotham*Glitter]

I just recently bought the book for myself and a friend. He finished it and I just couldn't. This book broke my heart. I've met Sistah Souljah, she came to my former college. I had a lot of respect for Sistah Souljah. Although I may not have agreed with everything she spoke of, I still had a lot of respect for her. I lost all respect for her with the novel Midnight.

This book, which I haven't even finished is so insulting to African American females it is unbelieable. Parts of it wanted me to vomit, honestly. The book was so black and white. African Americans = Bad and Foreigners = Good. The fact that a strong African man is going to choose a Japanese woman over his own race is like a spit in the face. Why are there no positive African American females in this novel? She made it seem like this Japanese girl is some sort of Saint. Any servicemen will tell you that hoes come in all colors. Japan is not filled with virgins. I don't know if there is any type of real boycott but I am more than happy to join it. Has anyone here written Sistah Souljah? I was seriously thinking about doing it. I would like to hear her take on what she was thinking when she wrote this. What is this book suppose to teach young African Americans?

I feel like so many people are on this interacial bandwagon that they are just giving up on a strong African family. There is a war on the African family and this book is a great example of such.

[Gullah*Gotham*Glitter]

A part of me was wondering if maybe she is trying to make us see the worst in ourselves. I don't know. I still don't get it. One thing I can say is that this book has inspired me to look for a book that portrays a postive African American figure. I never really got into Urban Novels. I'm still just trying to get over my disappointment in this novel. Its like when you find out that your beloved hero has some sort of huge flaw. Like Superman being a crackhead or Santa Claus being a childmolester....thats kinda how I feel about Sistah Souljah right now

Rosenda said:

Funny, when I read it years ago, I didn't think she was bashing ALL sisters. Just the ones that she was pissed off by the most. I honestly thought she pointed out those characters as a warning that any woman but especially a black woman should not live her life that way or interact with others that way, women or men in her life.

I think of it this way.......if what she said or the way she wrote it angered or insulted you, it's still something you can learn from. If you were wanting to write a book and tell a story, it would teach how you DON'T want to portray another black woman, whether or not she was the heroine or villain in the book.

I do feel thought your right on point that there are WAY too many writers doing stories about the fucked up bad girl character of the woman. That shit sells too well, but it's not just among our community, those kind of books are popular among Latinos and White people too. And what about those tripped out slighty disturbing whole industry of sexualized girl figures in all the Japanese anime books, magazines, and films? That kind of this always bothered me just as much as the proliference of bad girl sistas in books and film being too popular.


There are probably more than a couple reasons for that kind of woman stereotype being popular (also showing up in person on Jerry Springer and Maury Povich and similar Spanish language talk shows that broadcast from Miami FL and Mexico). Part of it might be "we show the worst in people just to entertain and get big ratings" and part of it might be basic disrespect for women. People who have only been burned by a few women and they assume all the rest of the women in the world are all behaving that way inside so they spout that shit out into the world in books and movies and television shows and music videos.

[hidaya]

Thank u sista! I'm with u on this.I stopped reading the post becasue the ignorant white wannabes were annoying me. Back to the book. I feel you 100%. Black (if it wasnt directly from the continent) meant evil and everything white was right. There was so much stereotypical bullshit in this book! And yes, like you said my dad was in Vietnam and laughs at the Asian submissive virtuous female myth. They were the mother fuckers shooting at the GI's during the day, sucking them off by night. So whatever. I emailed her and expressed my disgust you should too. She wrote me back talking bullshit about people thanking her for introducing them to a different culture. I told in the words of one of the men she thanked "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything". That's why black men are lost.

Gullah*Gotham*Glitter said:

I just recently bought the book for myself and a friend. He finished it and I just couldn't. This book broke my heart. I've met Sistah Souljah, she came to my former college. I had a lot of respect for Sistah Souljah. Although I may not have agreed with everything she spoke of, I still had a lot of respect for her. I lost all respect for her with the novel Midnight.

This book, which I haven't even finished is so insulting to African American females it is unbelieable. Parts of it wanted me to vomit, honestly. The book was so black and white. African Americans = Bad and Foreigners = Good. The fact that a strong African man is going to choose a Japanese woman over his own race is like a spit in the face. Why are there no positive African American females in this novel? She made it seem like this Japanese girl is some sort of Saint. Any servicemen will tell you that hoes come in all colors. Japan is not filled with virgins. I don't know if there is any type of real boycott but I am more than happy to join it. Has anyone here written Sistah Souljah? I was seriously thinking about doing it. I would like to hear her take on what she was thinking when she wrote this. What is this book suppose to teach young African Americans?

I feel like so many people are on this interacial bandwagon that they are just giving up on a strong African family. There is a war on the African family and this book is a great example of such.