Rep. Clarke at Shirley Chisholm Women’s Conference, Urges Self-Care

Black women should make themselves “the priority,” according to Brooklyn congressman Yvette D. Clarke, who represents the 9th Congressional District. She also advises them to exercise “self-care.”

In her address at the 5th Annual Shirley Chisholm Women’s Empowerment Conference, the congress member remarked, “For generations, Black women have been on the frontlines of many battles. From the Civil Rights Movement to the Women’s Rights March, we have quite literally put our bodies on the line to protect our men, our families, our communities, and one another, and are often taken for granted.”

Clarked added, “But our magic is no longer free,” added the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. “Now more than ever, Black women must focus on ourselves. We must make ourselves the priority. And, we must practice selfcare.

“If we are going to talk about the self-esteem of Black women, we must acknowledge the impact of the daily messages we are bombarded with, that tell us that we are not brilliant, beautiful, powerful, and capable.”

Clarke stated that generations of Black women had been affected by these teachings.

“But we are phenomenal women, are we not?” she asked patrons. “For every negative image, there’s a Shirley Chisholm, Maya Angelou, Tameka Mallory, Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, and Michelle Obama.

“For every culture vulture, for every appropriator, there is a content creator,” Clarke noted.

The symposium, with the title “Women Self-Esteem: A Light Shining in the Dark,” was sponsored by the Caribbean Research Center at Medgar Evers College and co-sponsored by Black Women for Fairness, Equity, and Justice.

The conference provided the community with, among other things, an “opportunity to bring to the attention of the Caribbean Research Center at Medgar Evers College major issues that affect the community, so that the center can include those issues in working groups that seek solutions to/or remediation of those issues.”

According to the conference’s planners, the center records and publishes the application of laws that benefit the community as a whole, particularly women.

The Shirley Chisholm Award for a Lifetime of Contributions to Humanity was given to public advocate Letitia James this year. The 2016 recipient was Clarke.

Shirley Anita Chisholm, who passed away on January 1, 2005, was born in Brooklyn to a Guyanese father and a Barbadian mother.

Chisholm, a politician, educator, and author, was elected to the US Congress in 1968, making history as the first Black woman to hold that office.

From 1969 through 1983, she served seven times as the representative for New York’s 12th Congressional District. Chisholm ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972, making history as the first Black woman and contender for the presidency of a major American political party.