The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.
Malcolm X
The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman.
The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.
Maybe you recognize these words as the audio sample from Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself.” Or maybe you were already familiar with the infamous line from Malcolm X’s 1962 speech “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” Either way, in 2020 America, these words downright refuse to relent accuracy.
In wake of arguably the most urgent summer in the history of the Black Lives Matter movement, as a culture we are shifting towards – at the minimum – recognizing the discrimination that Black men face in their day to day lives; yet Black women are still pleading to have their trauma taken seriously.
Anti-Black misogyny or “misogynoir” as coined by Northeastern University professor Moya Bailey, has had a stranglehold on the mobility of Black women in every pocket of American life. From a disproportionately high mortality rate during pregnancy to being more likely to be harmed by an intimate partner than any other racial group in this country. Black women have struggled to earn legitimacy in America from the moment they were involuntarily brought here, and although slavery is now long behind us in literal practice, there’s virtually no way to deny that the lack of compassion granted to Black women stems from a centuries-long fear. A fear that the Balck woman can not only succeed but exceed the achievements of anyone else, mainly white men. This is also known as white fragility and to be blunt, it kills Black women in this country at a rate that is increasingly alarming to many. Mainly because no one ever talks about our issues.
Let’s be honest; the national outcry surrounding Breonna Taylor’s murder on March 13 only began to pick up steam in the wake of George Floyd’s public lynching three months later. And even now, as Floyd’s killers await sentencing, the officers that murdered Taylor in her own home have all but walked away with proverbial slaps on the wrist (and pensions) leaving the internet to turn her death into a social justice meme. But that’s what the internet does, right? Weaponize trauma into a cruel topic of humor, usually at the expense of women, and especially at the expense of Black women. No matter who you are or what you do – Breonna Taylor was an EMT, Sandra Bland was an educated activist – you really should think twice before your caught being Black and a woman at the same time.
If for whatever reason you’re on the fence about the bonus disparities privy to Black women, then I ask you to simply consider the latest hyper-aggression to swarm celebrity Twitter. Megan Thee Stallion, a world-class rap star, was shot in both of her feet on July 12 during an altercation that involved Canadian rapper, Tory Lanez. Allow me to reiterate, the Huston rapper born Megan Pete, was hospitalized and taken into surgery after bullets were shot into her feet. However, instead of focusing the narrative on the “Cash Shit” rapper’s well-being, Meg’s fans, dubbed as “hotties,” were greeted by an onslaught of memes and jokes, most disappointingly from other (Black) celebrities.
Megan Thee Stallion’s status as a well-known rapper places her in an awfully unique position solely reserved for high-profile Black women. With her brazen public persona and NSFW lyrical content (bars), Meg has successfully integrated herself into the highly sexualized, male-dominated realm of pop-rap stardom. But given that a majority of her success is owed to the fact that she can offer the female perspective of the luxurious and rambunctious hip-hop lifestyle that many a hype-beast so desperately vie for, its unsurprising that it is her place as an unapologetically successful Black woman is now being used against her as a means to justify abuse and victim shaming.
When Megan finally did decide to jump on Instagram live to address the incident two weeks after its occurrence, she, unfortunately, felt the actual need to insist that her trauma is by no means a joke. That is what speaks volumes in and of itself. But for those of us with a basic grasp of empathy, you will immediately site the real punch in the gut as the moment when she said, while fanning away tears from her face, ” I didn’t deserve to get shot.” As if anyone does. As if anyone should even have to go out of their way to make sure people understand their pain. It should be obvious, but it does expose this country’s inability to grant Black women and their experiences with the same dignity that is expected to be provided to other human beings. Only after her heartbreaking address did 50 Cent feel compelled to apologize for posting an insensitive meme, and while that is ridiculous at best and undoubtedly heartbreaking, at the core, it further shows that as a society we are only eager to absorb Black culture as a means for status elevation and leisure. But, when shit hits the fan, who really is a fan?