Knowing your true self and reclaiming your power as a colored woman is extremely indispensable. As history changes over time and the female population amplify, it is important for colored women to get further knowledge within the self. Defining thyself as a woman of color and getting more in tune with self as some would label it “Staying Woke” is an amazing thing. It’s rather difficult for colored women in society to take back womanhood in such a matriarchal society. Understanding yourself and taking back black womanhood could be quite difficult, for some it’s scrutinized as a bad thing. Loving the skin you’re in is very important and self-healing. All black women deserve to know their worth and see themselves as the woman they were born to be.
Over time, society has broken down the esteem of African American women, colored women just do not have the luxury to break down. How could we not be? We’re getting pressed from all sides. Cut off at the knees, but then bearing the responsibility for things we have no power over. We’re silenced by being called the “angry black woman” anytime we have the audacity to speak up about what we face.
We’re caught at the intersection of sexism & racism, but people always project strength on us so there’s no empathy for our struggle. We’re forced to advocate for ourselves & each other, burdened with emotional labor for the vast majority of the people around us. We’re shamed with terms like a hoe, baby mama & hood rat, with little to no margin of error. People prize us for our endurance as if we have a choice, but only value most of what we bring when another group takes it up. From youth, we are made to feel cursed in our skin & bodies. Beauty being ascribed to people that don’t look like us.
We stand at the front lines for so many other groups when they’re in need, but when it comes to us more times than not we’re only left to fight for ourselves. Society has put so much responsibility on Black women, but no respect or appreciation. The fact that so many of us are able to go on in spite of is a miracle, but I wish it wasn’t toted as a symbol for our strength. We shouldn’t have to endure what we do. We shouldn’t have to accept so little.
But our trauma has been normalized so much that people don’t even consider the pain. And we have been conditioned to suffer in silence. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned to love being a Black woman, but part of the reason I write is that the vast majority of our stories make us the background & only value us as someone else’s strength. I want us to be able to be seen in our entirety. The good, bad, & ugly, without the pressure to put other people before ourselves as our primary purpose. Black women. Please reclaim the loam and stay united as one.
Queen Media Collective 