For many Black women, life is about getting up every day, taking care of children and partners and family members, going to work and taking care of employees or coworkers, going home and making dinner and taking care of family again, then going to bed to wake up and do it all over again the next day.
Black women have always been amazing, from the shit they put up with four hundred years ago, to the creativity that spawned from that shit, they have always, always, been phenomenal, bad ass, creative, creatures who exist throughout time and space in ways that can not be fully explained in words alone.
You have to go back through history and see the paintings, the clothing, the food, the rich, interwoven, genetic footprint left by the original Black woman in order to see it all. Like a finely woven tapestry, we only see the one colors, until we pull back and look at it as one big piece, but that’s an overwhelming thought when you really stop to think about it.
There are so many Black women throughout history the existence of Black women have been policed by everyone else on earth. From how we wear our hair, to the way that we dress, from the work ethic in our bones, to the frustration that we feel when people step on our toes. Everything about who we are as women is policed differently than other people, because of the color of our skin.
Now that being said, there are women who are not Black, who face just as many judgements and punishments for existing, and I recognize that, but I am speaking to the Black women in the audience right now, because that’s my experience.
To the little Black girl who thinks she is ugly because of the color of her skin, to the wise old Auntie who is worried she will die without ever seeing herself represented on the big screen.
Just before the beginning of this month, we lost Cicely Tyson, an amazing, phenomenal Black woman who used her voice and her talents to make space for Black women to exist. She won awards for her work, awards designed to show people that their work matters and has an effect on the world.
She’s one of a million Black women that I can name who throughout history, have affected changes that altered the way each generation after them, would exist in this world.
We are Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Make-up Artists, and Hair Stylists, Writers, and Directors. We work in grocery stores, and as janitors, we work in both the government and the private sector. In every single sector of society, Black women exist, and in many cases, unapologetically.
There are women who work in the backgrounds, to make sure that the rest of us have a fair shot. Whoopie Goldberg is credited for the reason that Miss Tyson won her Oscar. That’s important work, it’s not just the fact that we do the work, it’s that we are allowed – finally – to be credited with doing the work.
When we think about celebrities we tend to think about the fame, the jewels, the glitz and glamour of it all, but we rarely think about how much these people change the world. From Superman and Batman to Black Panther and Captain America, these stories are brought to life by real life people, who change the way that we as human beings perceive the world.
While Black women specifically can’t claim to have brought those stories to life, they were there. They exist in every world that has ever been created, whether or not certain people want to ignore that fact, their effect on the world is ever lasting. Because every celebrity who has ever existed has met at least one Black woman who taught them to see the world in a different way. And those perceptions have folded into the work in Hollywood, Washington, Quebec and England.
Everywhere there is anyone in power, in any industry, there is a Black woman in the shadows. That’s just a fact, it’s six degrees of Kevin Bacon, and I dare you to prove me wrong.
Name any white famous person, any one of them, and if they don’t tell you a Black woman has taught them at least one thing, they are either lying, or they are the ones who choose to ignore the existence of the Black woman.
We are there, in every story, in every film, in every newspaper article, somewhere in the shadows of what is not said, heard, or seen, our existence fuels the way that we see the world.
First as Warriors, then as victims, then as survivors, and again as Warriors. We are here, and we refuse to give up on ourselves or those around us.
We befriend people that hate us not to be nice, not because we think that we are better than them, but because we know the power of befriending an enemy and turning that enemy into a friend. We put up with more bullshit then anyone on the planet, except for other women of color.
We are majickal, wild, creatures, born of power and might, and for a very long time we hid our strengths in an effort to keep ourselves and our daughters safe. Every once in awhile pockets of power would be released in to the world just to remind it that we still exist.
From Daisy Bates, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, to Beyonce, Cardi B, and so many others, our stories are being told in ways that the world is still not entirely ready for.
When Destiny’s Child came out people were offended by the name because “who the fuck do they think they are?” what the world didn’t understand was something that Beyonce, Michelle, and Kelly knew all too well, if they wanted something they were going to have to tell the universe they were taking it. They declared themselves as Destiny’s Child because they knew what they were capable of, and they had a plan to put the world on notice.
No other band in the history of music has sold as much as Beyonce, and Destiny’s Child combined, and there is a reason for that, it’s because songs like Survivor were created as anthoms to lift up Black women, and it did it’s job.
Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston told about sex, and love with the Black woman, and their music transcended race, creed, nationality, and orientation.
Black women did that shit.
Black women have been there always and forever, because it is our destiny to be interwoven with the legacy of the universe. I truly believe that at the center of the universe there are identities that represent each of us on this earth, and at the heart? The Soul of a Black woman, because why the fuck not?
Black women helped to build the White House, and now a mixed race Black woman is sitting in one of the two highest offices in the entire world.
Don’t ever tell me that you are ugly because of the color of your skin. Do not ever tell me that you are not capable because of the color of your skin. Do not ever tell me that you do not belong, or that you do not deserve, because you are a Black woman. Do not ever tell me that you cannot do, because you are a Black woman.
I was gang raped several years ago, and it is purely because I am a smart, capable, strong, manipulative as fuck, Black woman, that I survived. My Blackness saved my life, because coded into my genes are the memories of all of the Black women who came before me.
Yes I am mixed race, and yes I have light skin, but I am still a Black woman, and I will never allow anyone to take that from me again, because I am a Black woman, I deserve to exist. Whether you like it or not.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 