Dear Black Women: A love letter to my sisters
“Dipped in chocolate, bronzed in elegance, enamelled with grace, toasted with beauty. My lord, she Is a black woman.” Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
I love this quote, it enforces the power and beauty of black women all over the globe. Light skin, dark skin we are all so beautiful and strong. Every person on this earth has a struggle, but the struggles of a black woman are not acknowledged to the same degree as the struggles of others. We are simply brushed to the side and expected to still function normally. Everything that is thrown at us by society, we are expected to handle. When we express our very valid opinions and feelings, we are described as angry. When we wear our natural hair out, we are told that we look messy. But when we wear our protective hairstyles in the form of weaves, extensions or braids, we are told that we do not love ourselves. When we do not look like the stereotypical black with big lips, clear skin and an hourglass figure to die for, we are called abnormal.
They even tried to divide and conquer us through the horrific means of colourism since the days of slavery, yet we still arise. Dark skin women with thick hips and clear skin are only accepted when drowned in coconut oil. When one white girl happens to have slightly wider hips we are told that black women should watch out because the white girls are taking over. Not to mention that we are forced by white women to accept their version of feminism when they fail to acknowledge the fact that the oppression faced by black women is on a completely different scale in contrast to the white women. We are rejected by some of our black men, who by the way have completely black mothers, because they do not like black girls or because black girls are too loud, we are not foreign enough. Black women have no other option but to be strong, ranked at the bottom of society, everyone else seems more important than us.
Personally, as a young black woman I often was brought up on the basis that I would have to work twice as hard as my classmates to achieve half of what they had. I was never taught to think of myself as a victim but rather as an individual in control of my own destiny. With hard work and persistence, I was taught I could do anything that I put my mind to. As much as I love this positivity, I believe that it is necessary to acknowledge and learn about the barriers that have been set in place to hold us back. We take on the struggle of both our skin colour and our sex, two things we cannot control. Yet we strive and break those ceilings. When we are told no, when we are not allowed in, we create our own paths and means to success.
My lord, black women are amazing.
