Jul 31, 2021 4 min read

good for black women

this post is dedicated to black women. it has been amazing to watch Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and so many of the black women in my life insist on protecting their wellness in a world that is so often only concerned about their labor.

Sending love to Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles. Sending love to this generation of little sisters/primas who are teaching us latchkey kid, they sleep/we grind aunties to stop, breathe, take stock, and speak up. Y'all are telling us it is all too much. You are right. I'm listening.
— Jessica Marie Johnson (@jmjafrx) July 28, 2021

for all of my fellow white women nodding, snapping, or maybe even still "yaaaas" ing, let's make sure we're continuously evaluating ourselves for the ways that we contribute to the hostilities black women face on the daily. i encourage you to read through this twitter thread and think deeply about times your wellness has been prioritized over that of a black woman. today is a good day to (re)commit to noticing and interrupting this cycle.

When I was in middle school, one of the white girls in my class decided we had beef. One week she decided she wanted to fight me so she told half the class who then told me. That day at lunch I watched as she shadowboxed with at one end of the yard. /1
— Imani E. McElroy, MD, MPH (she/her/hers) (@IEMcElroy) July 28, 2021

black women are not our mammys.

below is an account of how we expect black women to mule for us. read it and apply this lens as you move through the world.

Mammy’s were depicted as an altruistic, trusted advisor, who put the needs of the family she worked for before her own needs. According to the myth, their love and devotion was only for the white women and children she worked for. Although exaggerated, it is true that the Black domestic worker divulged nothing of her personal life. But this apparent lack of self interest was another way to cope with the oppression in which they lived. By not revealing anything about themselves, Black women created a psychological safe-space that was free from the scrutiny of the white families for whom they worked. This self-imposed invisibility was another coping mechanism to survive in a hostile world.

from stevona, the prophet.

i often return to this piece by Stevie Elem-Rogers about what it looks like to scrape the bottom and fill back up.

Why did I cry for days in my home instead of sharing how afraid I was to live in this country? Part of my evolution has been gut-wrenching honesty with myself. I’ve realized what I have I internalized that serves me, and what does not—and these truths of how we relate are among them. Today, I’m in a clearer place. And to others who have felt or are feeling as low as I have, I want you to know this peace will come.

today is a great day for reparations

reparations clinics provide wellness services to black folks in New Orleans and virtually across the globe. fellow melanin-deficient folks, this is a great place for us to send our reparations.

In the words of - Veronica Agard @verosgotthejuice, writer, educator and creator of Who Heals the Healer and Ancestors in Training series,"We cannot limit ourselves to one method of surviving a White Supremacist system that has multiple methods of harming or ending our existence. If we can be expansive and reclaim our methods of survival, then we can eventually thrive. We understand that reparations were not given to the vast majority of those descended from enslaved Africans across the Black Atlantic. We feel the pains of our people wherever they are and an indescribable longing for a moment in space and time that allowed us to be there for them. We believe in the resilience of our Blackness but name the dangers in being labeled as magical or superhuman when it is weaponized and embodied literally when our bodies express intergenerational suffering as health conditions. A path towards reparations that we can experience with all of our senses has appeared in this series. In offering these intentions, I invoke hope as a discipline as spelled by abolitionist Mariame Kaba. With that invitation comes the love and trust to do the work collectively in service of, and investing in, the wellness of the souls of Black folks."