TO MY FELLOW WHITE WOMEN:
I see parallels between 4B (the movement in which women are swearing off dating, sex, and marriage with men, as well as childbearing) and Black women walking away from us. Just as all women reserve the right to not trust men because of their history of harm toward us, so do Black women reserve the right to not trust us. Just as you want men to stop the “not all of us” nonsense, don’t do it to Black women.
You may have voted for Harris. You may be a fierce advocate. You may have written letters and made phone calls and canvassed. You may check your internalized bias and do perspective-taking every day. You may have acknowledged your privilege and strive to use it to tear down what’s wrong and replace it with what’s right.
But no one knows that by looking at you, and part of the work is understanding this. Empathy demands that if we feel compelled to respond to Black women’s social media and other discussion about how they are withdrawing from White women, our response would be “I can’t blame you.”
P.S. Blue bracelets aren’t going to cut it. It’s like when a man says “I’m a nice guy.” I don’t know about you, but my response to that is “Talk is cheap.” Another part of the work is not wanting or expecting recognition for doing it. The work is doing what’s right ONLY because it’s right.
zenzalei 