On Blackness and Womanhood

Is it possible to separate Blackness and Womanhood?

I see society as humanity in practice. From the perspective based solely on humanity, I am a woman first; if we are speaking from a societal perspective, I am black first. It is idealistic to believe that I am a woman first in all things, societal pressures and expectations deprived from race, community and culture would have me assert my blackness before my womanhood. I find this difficult, because even in my own community I am woman first.

Being a woman and being black in America is bittersweet: we lose while winning. We are the catalyst of style, education, colloquial language and culture but we are seen as less innocent, unattractive, and undesirable. Being Black in America has a bad connotation. Being a woman on planet Earth is difficult in itself. As a Black woman, I am at the intersection of inequality and constant struggle.

I neither be solely black or only female, no matter what choice society will place to me. I am all woman and all black. It is not beneficial to push back one part of my identity to raise up another. How can we advance the Black race when we leave out the voices of our women? How can women fight against the inequalities of patriarchy when all shades women have yet to be seen as equal? It seems as though the tactics we use to move forward are ultimately a last-ditch effort to shift our proximity to whiteness. For race to be elevated gender must fall subservient. In order for women’s issues to be heard, the cries of those of color are hushed if not silenced.

I don’t like having to choose between the two halves of my identity, and so I will not when asked; not now, not ever. To separate and select pieces my identity to satisfying checking box or aiding a revolution is something I will never subscribe to. To quote the lovable and, at times, problematic Trevor Noah, “Why can’t [I] be both? Why is that duality is only afforded to a select group of people?” Black woman borne and built America for the better through hardship and brutality. We can do the same now—as we are and have always been—as our complete selves. I am Black. I am woman.

I am a Black Woman, and it is beautiful.