Want to thank Black women? Here’s how.
Some have suggested that the super-organized Abrams be given the task of vaccine distribution — since, you know, she can (and must want to) do everything. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) posted a picture of a Stacey Abrams prayer candle.
The clamor is meant to be flattering, but it feels more than a little demeaning.
Black women — a faceless mass — are painted as devoted servants of the Democratic Party, with near-mystical powers of organization and determination. They can be directed toward any impossible task the public desires. They are carrying America on their broad, untiring backs. Their sacrifice is for you.
As producer Jonquilyn Hill wrote on Twitter: “The ‘Black women save us’ stuff from a certain subset of twitter gets really strange really fast. Quickly feels like the mammy and magical Negro tropes.”
Yeah, no thanks.
Black women have long been passionate and effective advocates for any number of issues — it’s fair to say we get the job done. We have saved the Democratic Party from itself again and again — just ask Joe Biden. And this time, Black women may have, in fact, saved America — or at least assured our government’s basic ability to function instead of staying mired in partisan gridlock for the next two years.
But that shouldn’t be our responsibility. Black women did not sign up to be America’s saviors. And Black women aren’t doing this work for the benefit of Twitter fans or liberal influencers; they are supporting democracy so that they, their families and their own communities can thrive.
On some level, it feels churlish to turn down rare praise. Black women do deserve acclaim — today and every day. We are often overlooked and have to push through obstacles that others don’t face: for everything from career advancement to safe pregnancy, labor and delivery. Politics aside, “Black girl magic” is an attractive coinage, because sometimes our tasks do feel superhuman — maybe it does take something special to be able to do it all.
But when this moment’s cheerleading dies down, one question will remain: Black women may have saved America, but who is saving us? And when can we count on our supposed allies to organize and work to fix the country on their own time, so that Black women aren’t also tasked with stepping in and cleaning up the results of someone else’s poor judgment in 2022, 2024 and beyond?
Abrams will be praised to the heavens today and discounted by her party tomorrow. A “woke” colleague will have shouted out Black women on a Zoom call Wednesday morning and then proceeded to speak over one by that afternoon.
The tweets, Instagram tags and gushing words of praise are meant well, I’m sure. But frankly, it would be far more meaningful to respect us, to hire us, to pay us and to pass policies that support us. And not do it just today, but every day.
Black women did the job for America this time, but that doesn’t mean we want to do it all the time. Yes, give us our flowers — but then go do your work.
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