What’s good, Medium? Things women of color are tired of edition
12-8–2016
This week Breakfast Club host Charlamagne da God used his platform to elevate the Blaze’s Tomi Lahren. When called out, he tweeted:
Tranette Williams is tired of Black men like Charlamagne throwing Black women under the bus to cape for white supremacy:
The problem is not just this fool being so seemingly unaware of the women of color out here doing it (even those he’s worked with!!!), it’s how easy it is to “take Black women to task” for our perceived lack. Charlamagne is just one in a legion of Black men who don’t think twice about shitting on Black women. Especially on Twitter. It is reflexive to dismiss and under-to-not-at-all value Black women. Instead of tweeting something like, “Hey, point me to woke Black and Latina women who’ve built platforms on social media,” he used his 140 character allotment to signal boost Tomi Lahren and point out how women of color are dropping the ball on building social media platforms to counteract people like her.
A Reneé W. is a Black fashionista who is tired of fashion magazines who don’t feature enough Black women. She says she only buys magazines with Black women on their covers:
My choice to buy publications featuring Black women also extends to address the issue of colorism within the Black community. Though Ebony and Essence magazines are meant for the Black audience, there can be a lack of representation there. Growing up, for years, the only Black models I saw in abundance were Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Iman, and Alek Wek; of which, Alek Wek was the only deviation.We are a diverse group of women, which is the strength of our beauty. However, having long been bombarded by European standards of beauty many African-American women feel they are not acceptable unless they fit into that image. That image being: lighter, skin complexions, long, straight hair or hair of a softer, looser curl pattern, and light brown or fair colored eyes. We do not all look this way. Personally, I only fit 1 out 3 requirements. My two younger sisters do not fit any of the criteria at all.
Imagine living in a world where not only are you told by the general public that you are not beautiful enough, but, also, your own community tells you that you are not up to standard. You are unacceptable to all, beautiful to none. Now, try holding onto what is left of your fragile confidence and self-esteem with this message being constantly repeated to you. It takes a strong will and an even stronger support system to combat this sort of defeating narrative. This was only one of many struggles.
Lara Witt is tired of people thinking women of color owe them something (spoiler: we don’t.)
I want women of color to be paid what you owe us. Pay us for our threads on Twitter, our self-published articles, our esthetics that you steal to up-sell at Urban Outfitters for Becky. Pay us for that emotional labor you expect us to do, pay us for the hours trauma takes away from our lives, and if you must insult us, do it with money.
I don’t want to soften my voice, I don’t want to be tone-policed, I don’t want to mould myself into your expectations, I don’t want to smile while you graze my ass and call me exotic, I don’t want to have my own experiences explained to me, I don’t want to have to explain to you why racism is wrong or why I don’t owe you shit. Not a single woman of color owes you her kindness, her patience, her lenience, her body or her time.
