You can play The Twilight Zone theme if you want to, but Big Girls comfort my inner child, while at the same time puts my African warrior mode at ready alert to protect them with my very life. Damn, Big Girls, if that isn’t love, it will have to do until the real things come along. Meanwhile, I can’t really explain it, so mayhap, I should name a few of my favorite Big Girls, e.g., photographer/public relations guru Georgia Provost, term limited Councilwoman Carol Mims Galloway, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Constable May Walker, the NAACP’s president Fran Gentry, HCCS Northeast president Dr. Margaret Forde and, lest I forget, Lenora “Doll” Carter. Valentines are for sweethearts aside, these widely diverse sisters share qualities that fall somewhere in between being a self-assured, sassy fox and Proverbs 31 woman. Nevertheless, flowers and those unique, Afrocentric, religious themed Valentine’s Day cards (from Shirley Ann’s Black Arts & Kollectibles Showroom, 6130 Wheatley, whose owner is a Big Girl herself), are only sent to my Hall of Fame Big Girls, i.e., Mommas: Alberta Martin, Hattie Rice, Eula Wilson and Mildred Dutton. Hey, if you know any of the aforementioned senior sisters, you should’ve guessed what I consider Big Girl qualifications by now. First and foremost, they dream, think and act big, thus they’re always out front and involved. Hark! Lest I forget, my African warrior princess “daughters,” definitely have Big Girl qualifications, but I’m in enough trouble with my older Big Girls I didn’t name. Hello Brenda Nicholas. On the other hand, a broad mind and/or good understanding are Big Girl attributes. Hark! I was greatly saddened to receive the sad intelligence that Black America’s biggest Big Girl and historical Valentine’s Day sweetheart, Coretta Scott King, had slipped out of time into eternity as we speak. Coretta, the 78-year-old widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had ovarian cancer and uffered a stroke in August, died on Jan. 31, 2006. For sure, the mainstream media will have exhausted every modicum of information about Coretta’s life and/or death, therefore we are obligated to define her legacy from a Black perspective. Ironically, her death replaced the remainder of this Eyeview that compared my Big Girl philosophy with descendents of slave’s historical “Big Mommas,” who were essential to Black family’s survival. The Black woman’s role in made in America African’s lives is legend.
It’s as unique as the inhuman kind of slavery ever devised. Quite frankly, the Black woman sho’ nuff defines the “long suffering” attribute of love, because she had no other choice but to demonstrate unconditional love for her man and man-child, lest there wouldn’t have been no such thing as Black love. Truth is, the key element for “niggerizing” the Black woman was to castigate and negate Black males’ indomitable warrior spirit (see Editorial.) Hey, it’s hard for a female to respect her male counterpart who has been “punked” out by other men. If you read our 2006 birthday salute to MLK, you certainly know that part of J. Edgar Hoover’s strategy to destroy the civil rights leader was to wreck his marriage. Coretta, being a preacher’s wife, was well aware of that tactic. Fortunately, she was a Big Girl and simply did what Black America’s Big Mommas have been doing since we were freed from slavery. She stood by her man, as long as he conducted himself as a man, i.e., took care of his children, respected his home and supported his family by any means necessary. For sure, if Coretta had nutted up over MLK’s infidelity, she would not only have destroyed the man, but the family and his legacy. But, Big Girls, who grow into Big Mommas, know how to separate important business from b.s. don’t play that. Coretta wasn’t only MLK’s Valentine sweetheart. She was the wind beneath his wings. I wonder if anybody knows where I’m coming from?