SHARKEISHA, NO, NO, NO!

She’s one of the most googled people on the net and shockingly so, it only took her a week to become a sensation.  The worst thing is that she is not famous but rather infamous…all due to her visiting violence upon another person.

Sharkeisha, no.

I will be honest: I had only seen the deplorable video yesterday. I didn’t even know what a Sharkeisha was until then.  All I knew was that my Facebook friends were constantly making comments about Sharkeisha…how they might have to go Sharkeisha on Black Friday, etc.  I knew it had to be about a person but her name became a verb simultaneously and apparently a symbol of going “hard” being “tough” and fighting. Before I saw the video, I googled the name and received a hit from the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sharkeisha) which defined the name as: Char • kee • shuh ) Verb. 1. To Punch The Soul From Another Being's Body. Still I didn’t know what or who Sharkeisha was.  I resolved that maybe it was someone from one of  the reality television shows like Love and Hip Hop, who had gotten into an altercation that became a sensation.  I resolved not to care because I typically don’t entertain those kinds of shows anyhow.

However, when my cousin who was visiting from DC, asked me had I seen the video, I took a peek out of sheer curiosity.  I will not post any links to it here because I was utterly disturbed by what I had witnessed: two young black girls involved in a one sided altercation.  I say one sided because Sharkeisha did all the fighting while someone who obviously has no respect for themselves, their community, or simply doesn’t give a damn, stood by and filmed the ridiculousness.  Simply out for her fifteen minutes of fame, the “friend” only slightly raised her voice to say “Sharkeisha, No!” when she noticed that the assault went from a sucker punch to subsequent punching and lastly a kick to the face of the victim.  Brutality in its greatest proportions for all the world to see.

Sharkeisha, no!Girl with the cellphone camera, NO!

No to the violence first off but no to another woman of color shown in a negative light! No, to another young sister glorifying a stereotype, and no, to immaturity at its finest hour. Lastly, a big HELL NO to a lost generation that does not know their history or the consequences of their actions.

Street fights happen everywhere and much more often in worse magnitudes than what Sharkeisha did to her victim.  However, what I still cannot understand is that even in 2013, the worst images of African-American women still permeate mass and social media.  Even as we have the first African-American First Lady in the White House, an African-American Woman Millionaire who was able to reach across all color lines through her part in the media (Oprah), and countless other powerful and educated women of color making a difference more than ever before, our popularity rests in how brutal we can be, how oversexed we supposedly are, how poor and uneducated we can be, and how well we fit the stereotypes that have been pinned on us for over 500 years.

Sharkeisha and Girl with the cellphone camera…no. The video that was made wasn’t just your fifteen minutes of fame; it was a sell out of your people and now being used as a propaganda device to confirm that black girls are wild and vicious.  Please remember  those that came before you and the struggles they faced fighting so you may even exist.  Lastly, a word on morality; please handle your affairs in private…like a lady.

The Sharkeisha incident is only one of many videos of African-American girls fighting that has been floating on the internet.  However, why are we as a collective community of all races encouraging dysfunction? I will not use this young sister’s name to describe any kind of rage I am feeling; not only is it wrong, she has not become objectified as a thing rather than a person, repeating a vicious cycle that all women, but especially women of color have to deal with everyday of their lives.   However, they only exist because we watch.  Ghandi said “No one can hurt me without my permission.” I believe this is true. The mass and social media outlets can only hurt us if we continue to buy into what we are being fed about ourselves and if we do not do more to control what is being put out there. My thoughts on this: IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SPEAK UP! And let us encourage sisterhood!!!

Women of color it’s time to make a bigger noise about how we are portrayed. To the girl in the video who was victimized, stand up!