photo by steed media service

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

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