I am a black woman, an activist for LGBT rights, women’s rights, and black lives. I stand for equality for everyone, although many of those people I fight for do not find a reason to fight for me.
“I didn’t learn to be quiet when I had an opinion. The reason they knew who I was is because I told them.” ~Ursula Burns
As a black woman, I go through several forms of disrespect a day, whether its a man and his obnoxious cat calls or inappropriate inbox messages, a white woman who grabs her purse if I reach for something near her in a store, or looked upon by a cashier as an annoyance when I pay for groceries for my family with a government given card.
I remember as a child I had a teacher tell me that I had three strikes against me. I was black, a woman and some other reason which I cannot remember now, but that third reason now, is because I am a part of the LGBT community.
I stand in protest with everyone and as an extra body I am welcomed but when I ask for respect I am ignored. I read an article from another black blogger who stated why she would not attend another Women’s March and she was not the first I have heard this before. According to many, not just by word of mouth, but also by videos posted to YouTube and Facebook, when black woman are in attendance to the woman’s movement, they are acted like they don’t belong. Like our issues are not their issues.
“Black girls loving themselves will always offend people who don’t see a reason for a black girl to be loved.” @onlyrickjames (Twitter)
I have seen many whitesplaining that mention us putting aside our difference for the “Women issues”, but as a black woman, our issues are doubled, if not tripled. We are told to be quiet, to not complain, to accept what is and keep moving. We have carried the world on our shoulders for centuries. We breast-fed white babies during slavery to be beaten by those same children who drank from us, we were the head of our households and the backbones of our families when black men were forced to leave and when they started leaving on their own. We have been behind many powerhouse moves, like the defeat of Roy Moore. Yet we are ignored until they need us.
A high percentage of white women who are protesting Trump voted for him, and now they look at us like we should forget the racist comments he has made and only focus on the sexual abuse scandals and belligerent disrespect he has for women. No we cannot. We need to focus on ALL the issues.
Imagine a world with no labels. No one boxed for being a man, woman, child, adult, senior, LGBT, black, white, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, no religion, disabled, veteran, employed and not. Imagine that we looked at disrespect and realized its a character flaw no matter who its against. See the funny thing is we all want respect and to be able to sleep at night comfortably, surrounded by the things and people we love. We all want to make a name for ourselves, or fulfill our purpose. Imagine if we all worked together instead of working against each other? Why does one set of people have to be miserable for the next to be happy?
As J.Cole said if we take down our leaders, the next to get on top will take advantage of their new found power. But what if we eliminate power and lead with compassion. Lead with making life easier for everyone?
Black women have been kept silent and given reasons like they would hurt our families, our reputation and our name. As outspoken we are called angry black women, which causes many of us to lose our voices or to be silenced.
A black woman’s cry is everyones cry, because we fight beside all of you, but who turns around and pulls us up? Listen to the black woman’s cry, because our cries and our strength is what is holding up this country, despite if you believe in us. Don’t support us when we are on top and then take our credit and push us aside. We are importance to history, a legacy in our own and a power to be reckoned with.
Tiffany M. Arnold 