September 2018


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Your Opinion Matters Omarosa is not your dog, Trump!


The Hampton Roads Messenger 11 Museum Conference FROM PAGE 10


of African American Museum’s 40th anniversary of its annual conference,” said Hampton University President, Dr. William R. Harvey. “We are overjoyed to host all these wonderful people for their final gathering of this year’s conference and hope they have enjoyed visiting our ‘Home by the Sea.’”


Hampton University’s brass


band, marching band, and Ebony Fire Dance Team welcomed the museum members with music and dance New Orleans jazz style, complete with the dance


team donning white and


carrying white umbrellas. Te Museum offered refreshments and snacks while conference attendees could peruse the collections inside the Museum.


BY DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX Omarosa Manigault Newman


I am no fan of Omarosa Manigault


Newman, the mononymous diva who dominates the airwaves whenever she wants to. Her new book, Unhinged, which I won’t read, is billed as a tell-all on 45's White House and its shenanigans. In making the rounds, Omierosie (my nickname for her) has played tapes that seem to corroborate at least some of her allegations about 45. More importantly, her tapes are evidence that the game captured the hunter. In other words, Omierosie took a page from 45's book and trusted fewer people than even 45 did!


Now the 45-defense machine, led


by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has gone out of its way to paint her as all kinds of liars. Surprise, surprise. And folks have run to the airwaves to suggest that the People's House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is inhabited entirely by liars. If you elect a clown, expect a circus, but this is more than a spectacle now. It is the systematic denigration of Black people and Black women that must be repudiated and rejected.


The dehumanization of Black


people allowed whites to enslave us and then justify enslavement. The defeminization of Black women allowed white men to use us sexually, and shielded them, after enslavement, from any consequences. Legally, it was almost impossible, until recently, to convict a white man of raping a Black woman. Recy Taylor's rapists got away with it, and white women stood by them. Omierosie may be an integrity- challenged lowlife (that didn't start with this book), but she is not a dog. Calling Omarosa a dog is a sly way of 45 trying to call her an *itch, or a female dog. She is, as we all are, a terribly flawed human being. In naming her a dog, as in calling Congresswoman Maxine Waters "low IQ" is casting aspersion on all Black women.


The civil rights activist Ruby Sales


addressed this on a Facebook post that bears sharing. “Trump called Omarosa a dog. For younger folk let me break it down. His slander is laden with White Supremacist historical slander of Black women in a culture of White male rape and a reign of terror. Their assault against Black women extends back to captivity and enslavement in sites of terror in a strange land where we were hostages to the sexual whims of White men. Moreover, these men were also pedophiles who raped young Black girls.


To justify their perverse behavior,


desires and the colonization and invasion of the lives and body territory of Black girls and women, they slandered us as


Photo by Gage Skidmore


whores and immoral sexual predators whose sexual appetites know no limits. So when you sit quietly and allow Trump - no matter what you think about Omarosa- to call her a dog, you give him a pass to raise up the white smear of us that your older sisters went to the mat placing our lives on the line to end this culture.”


Omarosa isn’t the only former


White House aide who has written about the dysfunctional White House. Sean Spicer did the same thing, yet he has not been called a dog. Instead, he was feted in Washington with a book party that actually charged an admission fee! No shade and no disparagement from the White House. Censure seems only to come when a Black woman is speaking her truth. It is an interesting time to be an African American woman. On the one hand, during this September month, we see eleven Black women gracing the covers of magazines.


Beyoncé is on the cover of


Vogue, Rihanna on the cover of British Vogue, Tracy Ellis Ross on the cover of Elle, Zondaya on the cover of Marie Claire. Issa Ray graces the cover of Ebony, actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish is on the cover of Glamour, Lupita Nyong’o is on the cover of Porte, and there are others who show up on smaller publications. In total, writes Joy Sewing, African American women graced eleven magazine covers in the all-important September issues, the issues that often attract the most advertising and also set trends for the fall and the rest of the year. The Beyoncé cover on Vogue is especially impactful because Beyoncé used her influence and editorial direction to bring a young black man in as her photographer. It was the first time that an African American was the cover photographer for Vogue magazine in its history.


On the one hand we are being


celebrated, and on the other hand, we are being slammed. Commercial sensibilities are out of sync with the bigotry of this president, but can these commercial sensibilities be used to topple 45’s bigotry? Beyonce brought a Black cover photographer to Vogue Magazine. Can her Bey-hive bring change to prevailing racist attitudes? Will the women who pick up these magazine covers send a strong message to the woman-hating, genital grabbing President? Omorosa may be a lot of things, Chump, but she is not your dog, and neither are the rest of us!


Aſter a while, the visitors, dressed


all in white, walked to the University Café to continue the celebration with food, drinks, music and dancing. “I feel like the red carpet has been rolled out, the food is wonderful, the school band was out here and it’s just our way to wrap up the conference and a chance for everybody to show their gratitude, the Host Committee, the Board, everyone who comes together for this wonderful networking and professional development opportunity,” said Brian Carter, Board President of the Association of African American Museums.


Dr. Vanessa Taxton-Ward,


Director of Hampton University Museum and Archives, started the evening off with a heartfelt thank you. “I want to thank first of all the African American Museums for letting us host the 40th Anniversary of the Association and it’s really special because we are hosting this during the 40th Anniversary of our President, Dr. William R. Harvey, and Mrs. Norma B. Harvey, who also served as our Honorary Chair,” said Dr. Taxton-Ward. “We are also very grateful that you all decided to come to Hampton University, our ‘Home by the Sea,’ and now your ‘Home by the Sea’ as we culminate the 150th Anniversary


of the University and the Hampton University Museum, founded in 1868.”


Te Mayor of the city of Hampton,


Donnie Tuck, was also there to welcome the attendees. “We just want to welcome you, we have a great city and I think about the visionary leadership of General Armstrong, who founded the University back in 1868, he had the vision and foresight to establish a museum and in fact the Hampton University Museum is the oldest African American Museum in the country and has one of the largest African American collections in the country,” Tuck said. “When Dr. Harvey came here in 1978, and in his book ‘Principles of Leadership,’ he talks about the fact that Hampton University had a number of financial challenges, but his vision was still to have a cultural center, a community for Hampton University students and so he kept the Museum.”


Te week-long conference


and culminating White Party gave participants chances to collaborate, learn about other museums, talk with each other, and make life-long friends. “Because of the richness of the history of which we have, it was important for us to connect with those who had gone through the same struggles as us starting an African American museum, as well as connecting those who are going through the struggle of telling their story,” said Rosalind Withers, Executive Director and Founder of the Withers Collection Museum and Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee.


as well as the 40th Conference of the Association


American


Te White Party was a true success, of African


Museums. “Tank you to Hampton University, specifically to the Museum here on campus and Dr. Taxton-Ward for all that she did, and the Host Committee did to welcome us and have a really professional, organized and still friendly and really lovely conference for us, so thank you to the University and congratulations on their anniversary,” said Carter.


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