Black Women Leaders Speak Up and Out on Misogyny, Money, and the #MeToo Movement

MIAMI - May 3, 2018 - PRLog -- The Black Woman Millionaire Tour has traveled to seven of ten cities across the nation speaking to hundreds of black women leaders and entrepreneurs about their frustration about men, money, and power in the workplace. "Why is it when white women tell their truth, it's all over the media," says Dr. Venus Opal Reese, creator of the Black Woman Millionaire Tour and author of the book by the same name. "The word on the street has been that when white women started to speak up about Harvey Weinstein, it was big news. But black women have been saying the same thing for centuries and it wasn't a headline."

Studies have shown that sexual violence affects black women at higher rates. More than 20 percent of black women are raped during their lifetimes—a higher percentage than women overall.

"Time's up for black women to be ignored. We've survived slavery and the atrocities then, and hundreds of year later Tarana Burke, a black woman, starts the Me Too Movement in 2006—and we don't get a headline? This sort of invisibility for brilliant and extraordinary black women impacts our ability to break the million-dollar mark. They say, 'Why bother? The system is stacked against me,'" said Dr. Venus.

Professor and journalist Shanita Hubbard wrote on Twitter: "Black girls and women are both viewed as hypersexual so our stories are ignored."

Dr. Venus, a Stanford University graduate and former tenured professor, discusses on her tour that the black female body is a "social non-being." She talks about how since the 1600s, taxes and laws have been created to justify the right to black women's bodies as the labor-producing workforce for the American Dream.

Historically, the black female body has been socially positioned in the following ways:

●     the workhorse

●     the cash cow

●     the beast of burden

●     or the scapegoat

"We end up feeling very powerless," says Dr. Venus. "What I have learned from my own experience of living on the streets by the age of 16, eating out of trash cans, and being subject to damn near every sort of violation is this: the way to claim your power is through healing your relationship to yourself and having your own money."

Dr. Venus is on the last leg of her national tour based on her best-selling book, The Black Woman Millionaire: A Revolutionary Act That Defies Impossible. "The book deep dives into the healing required to be your own boss and to charge what you are truly worth. During the 4-hour workshop-like tour stops, I cover the business training and strategies we used to gross over $4 million in five years without loans, investors, or government funding of any sort. We have a cash-based business model that is rooted in your lived experience—especially the painful parts—as a Black Woman," she states.

Dr. Venus believes that even in the wake of the Time's Up and Me Too movements, this is the best time in human history to become a Black Woman Millionaire—on your own terms.

"All sickness needs to be healed in order for a person to thrive. You can't heal until you tell your truth and claim not just your voice but also your power. In very real ways, your power is in your purse—where you spend your money—and in your profits," says Dr. Venus, who has been featured in Forbes, Ebony, Black Enterprise, on ABC News, CBS News, PBS, in Glamour magazine, Diversity Inc., and the Associated Press.

"It's time for black women to never have to put up with crap for a paycheck. Or stay in any sort of terrorizing relationship because we need the money. We have access now that our ancestors could never have known to pray for. It's not only our time, it's our turn."

For info on the tour, visit: www.TheBlackWomanMillionaire.com/Tour

Dr. Venus Opal Reese on the News:
Turning Your Mess Into Millions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUzFgNUPIA