Armed and Intelligent

I would be remiss if I did not use my inaugural blog post to tell my future readers (hopefully there'll be more than one) how 'armed and intelligent' came to be about and what I hope to accomplish with it. For at least two years friends, family, and coworkers have encouraged me to start a blog. As a writer, a lover of fashion, art, and pop culture and an extremely opinionated human being I always wanted to pursue it but between work & school I always felt as if I didn't have the time or energy to put forth the effort it required. Then yesterday while checking one of my favorite entertainment blogs found here. I found a link to a story that I found extremely offensive. The blog What About Our Daughters which claims to be “unapologetic, uncompromising, and unbowed in defense of black women and girls” seemed to have no qualms about speaking FOR them interpreting the work of Kanye West, Jay-z who the author of this post condescending refers to as "Beyonce's drug dealing husband" -yea cause that makes his contributions to society on a musical and philanthropic level irrelevant right?- and newcomer Nicki Minaj telling black women and girls what it should mean to them and detailing why they should be outraged by it. As an artist and a young black woman I was infuriated by her sweeping proclamations. My inner voice screamed out I'm not outraged! I don't feel this way! And I could not shake the words from the blogs tag line out of my head "in defense of" something the blogmother must have felt was needed because let's face it too many black women and girls have no desire or opportunity to defend ourselves and our viewpoints. But this young black woman does. I am armed with a mind and I can and will use it to speak for myself. This blog will not only entail reviews of films, books, and general social commentary it will also feature rebuttals of articles that presume to speak for an entire demographic like the individuals that make up that demographic personal viewpoints do not matter. This is not a blog for young black women it is a blog written by a young black women about the world around her and her interpretation of it. All are welcome to read and comment on those interpretations whether you agree with them or not. Thanks for reading... k3k3_n.