A WW kept touching my hair. Pulling my curls to watch them bounce back. Rubbing the top. Smelling it. So when I told her to stop and complained to HR and my supervisor, she complained that I wasn’t a people person or team member and I had to leave that position for being ‘threatening’ to a coworker
THIS. Black women face subjectivity every day. We are constantly ogled at by any race and gender. Our hair is a marvel, but it's also a tragedy. Don't touch our hair.
There is the initial pain of being subjected to gendered racism and discrimination, there is the additional distress of not being believed or supported, and of having your words and your bravery seemingly credited to others.
This is so true. Women of color face trauma from their race/ethnicity and from being a woman. There is no way to win. Being a woman of color, we feel less heard and seen. It's difficult to feel like we matter when the world doesn't seem to think so.
People of color need their own spaces. Black people need their own spaces. We need places in which we can gather and be free from the mainstream stereotypes and marginalization that permeate every other societal space we occupy. We need spaces where we can be our authentic selves without white people’s judgment and insecurity muzzling that expression. We need spaces where we can simply be—where we can get off the treadmill of making white people comfortable and finally realize just how tired we are.
Immediately, this passage struck out to me as it is important that Black people need space to breathe. We face so much struggle trying to survive in our society, that it's often too much for us to push to the back of our minds and continue about our day. We need a safe space to reflect and to expose any or every emotion that we have.
Spaces for people of color are ignored, even when they attract large numbers. They are marginalized from other community events and programming.
This is a big problem in society. Even when communities of color try to create safe spaces, they get ignored by the majority. Our feelings are still invalidated, it feels like we still don't matter.