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photo by steed media service
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President, Bennett College
The contributions of black women to family and society is immeasurable.
They may never receive the credit and appreciation they deserve.
Julianne Malveaux, president of Greensboro, N.C.’s Bennett College, has
devoted her career to elevating the status of young black women by
providing them with the tools to make a difference.
A
proponent for changing the way black women are perceived, Malveaux
believes that each individual has the power to reverse this trend.
“We’re talking about hip-hop and the language of hip-hop and the images
of African American women. Both of those are important conversations
for me to have as a president of one of the two black women’s colleges,
[Spelman being the other), in [a] country where we clearly struggle
with the way we are depicted in the media,” says Malveaux.
Malveaux declares an immediate call to action is required to raise
awareness regarding the harm caused when black women are demeaned.
“This is not just about hip-hop today. It’s about the degradation of
black women in [the] historical continuum [of] centuries of making us
less than. It’s not just about a couple of words that a couple of
rappers use, it’s really about honoring black women. It doesn’t matter
if you call some random white girl like Paris Hilton out of her name,
because that is not the presumption of white women. The presumption of
black women is less than, so we have to fight to make it better,”
explains Malveaux. – jason thompson
