I'm so glad you're interrogating publicly the "always follow Black women" trope which has emerged in the last handful of years. It is an idea that comes from a truism of all systems based on hierarchies of power, that those at the bottom by necessity often maintain broader and deeper levels of insight about the nature of the system than …
I'm so glad you're interrogating publicly the "always follow Black women" trope which has emerged in the last handful of years. It is an idea that comes from a truism of all systems based on hierarchies of power, that those at the bottom by necessity often maintain broader and deeper levels of insight about the nature of the system than those farther up the ladder. It's how you survive. Black women, based on their intersectional oppressions, are those people in America. But leaning on them to save us, particularly us as White women, IS simply racism wearing a velvet glove. On par with exoticization and all the other ways that we put BIPOC on pedestals while simultaneously undergirding the status quo.
And at the same time, there's just so much to keep track of these days. It's nearly impossible to formulate an informed opinion on every blessed thing. So, for me anyway, "trust Black women" is the starting place. If I want to understand something social/systemic I'm gonna start with what Black women are saying about it (or indigenous women, or AAPI women, or Latinas, etc.) and then continue learning and formulating from there. Trusting Black women is the starting place, and not the end of our obligation by a long shot.
I'm so glad you're interrogating publicly the "always follow Black women" trope which has emerged in the last handful of years. It is an idea that comes from a truism of all systems based on hierarchies of power, that those at the bottom by necessity often maintain broader and deeper levels of insight about the nature of the system than those farther up the ladder. It's how you survive. Black women, based on their intersectional oppressions, are those people in America. But leaning on them to save us, particularly us as White women, IS simply racism wearing a velvet glove. On par with exoticization and all the other ways that we put BIPOC on pedestals while simultaneously undergirding the status quo.
And at the same time, there's just so much to keep track of these days. It's nearly impossible to formulate an informed opinion on every blessed thing. So, for me anyway, "trust Black women" is the starting place. If I want to understand something social/systemic I'm gonna start with what Black women are saying about it (or indigenous women, or AAPI women, or Latinas, etc.) and then continue learning and formulating from there. Trusting Black women is the starting place, and not the end of our obligation by a long shot.
This is so well put, Asha. Thank you.