About once a year I have to address some nasty people about this issue so here is my address this year. Here are some of the comments that have come my way since posting the video for "What We Deserve" online at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iEBQ_Ox7CMle0zar (1 week ago) Look at this stupid clueless bad speeker girl, she has no idea what she talking about... she is brainwashed, stupid mofo... srsly this shit pissing me off, that bitch offend me!
cringo123 (1 week ago) fatt ugly black women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
upchuck001 (2 weeks ago) I wonder if it's ever occurred to this woman that she could simply choose to keep her legs closed until she finds a decent man. Of course not. She's a filthy horny slut willing to sleep with any filthy horny dog, without a trace of honor or responsibility among any of you. Some women deserve better, but not the ones who are blaming everyone but themselves for their choices. The kind of man they're looking for deserves better than them.
Why do I find myself hating her so much?
Posted by: Christina
So after reading what a pariah I was I wrote a response. Just thought I would share it. Feel free to pass it along or if you find yourself wanting to harass an idiot one day, you too can reply to my youtube video. LOL Have at it!
Hello I am Sonya Renee the author of the performance poem "What We Deserve".
It has definitely been INTERESTING reading an anti abortion perspective on my poem "What We Deserve". First and foremost I find it telling that a significant amount of the response does not deal with the specifics of the poem at all. Thusly, I offer a little background so that you might at least better understand the context of what you are watching. I am performance poet and spoken word artist. I participate in SLAM poetry, which is competitive performance poetry. My poem can not be longer than three minutes and ten seconds. Thusly, there are parts of this piece that you did not see on this video but that address other issues around the topic of abortion including adoption. However, my biggest issue with the comments posted about this piece have little to do with comments about my tone being shrill, or my poetry not rhyming (Actually this piece has heavy slant and off rhyme and it is written in free verse, just so you understand the form) as "good" is always very subjective as you pointed out Mary. Beyond not liking the craft or performance of the piece, which is fine, I take most offensive to a bevy of assumptions about who I am and what I have been through. But just so you have no misconceptions about me let me enligthen you.
I am the daughter of a teenage mother and father who were both addicted to drugs at some point in my life. My moher smoked crack until I was 24 years old. I have taken care of myself since I was sixteen. I come from a background that would imply that I would have and be nothing. 75% of my family are teenage parents, have some subtance abuse issues or severe mental health issues. I am 30 years old, I am the first person in my entire family to have a Master's degree and soon to be working on a dual PH.D and J.D( this is out of 13 aunts and uncles who never finished high school). I run a National Training Program around mobilizing "MY RACE" Heather4life to address HIV/AIDS in the Black communtiy. I have spent two decades working with kids with emotional and behavioral problems, the children who take guns to school, beat up faculty, hurt themselves and others. The kids born to parents who inflicted some of the most heinous abuses against them. These kids are now locked up and some of us still care about them. Some of us believe in their redempton. And I am also (whether you like my stuff or not) A National and International Poetry Slam Champion. I say all of that not to pat myself on the back but to ensure you that I do not speak on issues that 1. I know nothing about and 2. that I have done nothing about.
Make NO MISTAKES I am the exception to the rule. Most kids from my background DO NOT make it out. So let's not be flippant about what it means to " have struggled to better your lives" Mary, because that is what I have done. That struggle allowed me to go back after finishing college and get my mother off of crack cocaine. So PLEASE don't ASSUME that I have spent years throwing a pity party for myself. That would be highly dissrespectful and Grossly inaccurate. However, what I have learned from life is that there are circumstances and situations that take generations to conquer and you can not pass on what you don't have. The pregnancy i had at 19 years old to a boy who knew nothing and had even less, was not about "lack of self control" Heather, it was about wanting to make soemone stay and love me. It was about a manifestation of years of hurt from parents who could not teach me what they didn't know. So let's not over simplify how people end up in the situations that they end up in. If I would not have terminated that pregnancy, i would have likely repeated the cycle my family had repeated for generations. I did not have the skills to raise a whole, healthy child and i likely would have been birthing that child into a life of poverty. It took me years to learn to love myself and not live as a victim of my history, those are years I would have spent raising a child to take on all of my deficiencies. As far as adoption, (which i think is a beautiful thing and rather than birthing, I am planning to adopt two older children in the next few years), until americans stop flying to Europe and Russia and Asia to adopt babies while american children, specifically african american children languish in foster care systems until adulthood; It is an arguement that seems like lip service. Until every pro-lifer adopts a child currently in the foster care system I have little to no respect for their arguement. The reality is No, everyone should not parent. There are children on this planet who came from horrific existences and many of them are the same ones you will be advocating to execute on death row in the "justice" system. However, most salient to me is the fact that until the social and political circumstances that cause women to not want to parent are addressed, we have NO RIGHT TO BE TALKING ABOUT THE MORALITY OF ABORTION! POVERTY IS IMMORAL, RASCISM IS IMMORAL, SEXISM, CLASSISM AND DISCRIMINATION ON ANY BASIS IS IMMORAL. Until we address those issues, until we make abortion seem totally unnecessary to those who have them, to me this debate is moot. And no Nathan, children should not be consequences. They should be wanted and cared for by capable loving parents.
Christina, I do not hate you. I have never met you. I know nothing about your life or experiences. It would be amazingly unjust for me to hate you. Do I disagree with your stance, Yes. Does that lead to hate? NO. Far more frightening than a woman aborting a pregnancy, is the fact that because someone a living, breathing, walking, talking person on this planet does not believe what you believe, you hate them. Where have I seen that idealogy before, World War II Geremany, Auschwitz, Rwanda, Darfur, Kosovo, Iraq. I believe it always ends in war and devastation. Is that what we should birth children and teach them?
Heather, God bless you for getting out of that abusive relationship with your child. My cousin was not as lucky, he shot her in the head and then killed himself. I am glad you had a mother to go to. All of us do not.
To Nathan and anyone else who commented, Trust me I have poems that address those who run out on the women they impregnate, I have poems for young women on how not to become pregnant, how to respect and honor yourself and I have poems about my own personal growth. And yes sometimes they are loud and ranty, sometimes they are quite and introspective. I am not a one trick pony. But most of all I am open to dialogue and discussion. I am willing to hear your point of view and I will never denigrate your humanity just because our opinions differ. I believe that is what is right.
Feel free to contact me with any further comments. sonyarenee@gmail.com
abundant blessings,
Sonya Renee