Black History & Women’s History

Like every other person on earth this past year, I had to hit pause and suddenly stop everything I was doing to social distance and stay home as much as possible. That feeling of, “Wow, this is happening!” is a common humanity thread I think a lot of us can relate to. We heard the word “unprecedented” approximately 15 times a day if we kept an eye on the daily Covid-19 briefings and the news. Suddenly we were living through a major historical event. The world slowed down and I was forced to reflect. 

The last year has pushed me to realize that my former life where I worked at a professional regional theater six days a week and was happily living below the poverty line just to work my way up a patriarchal hierarchy was a lot more problematic than I cared to admit. I lived in a world where I was lucky to work where I did and I had to “behave well” within the organizational’s White Supremacist ideals in order to be successful and continue to be promoted. 

And the thing is, after going to two private schools, a Predominantly White University, and then an extremely exclusive essentially unpaid apprenticeship… I was extremely well prepared to play the game and keep growing. In fact I already had. Had the pandemic not shut down my industry, I was looking forward to a year’s worth of contracts. So when all of that became obsolete and out of the question, a lot of entertainment industry folks started speaking out against racist norms and experiences at major American theaters and educational theatre programs. These articles and posts forced a great deal of introspection across the industry and consequently, myself. 

Part of me felt embarrassed that I didn’t speak out sooner about my experiences of abuse and microaggressions within institutions, but another part was loudly recognizing the white supremacist norms and major patriarchal practices at play that were there to keep myself and other vulnerable parties quiet. For awhile I left it at that - I was a cog in a system designed to keep young people quiet and desperate for success. However, since entering live corporate events and brand marketing with ELE, I’ve been able to expand my horizons and let the new lessons sink in. 

With my work at ELE I have been charged with organizing bite-sized facts and resources to share on behalf of ELE’s socials. This research has been focused on Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Now, as a cisgendered half-black, half-white woman I was naturally interested in the material. I’ve always been interested in the material, however I did attend multiple predominantly white institutions growing up and I’d say my educational background on these two topics is not the most robust. 

As a “Zillennial” I’ve also been spending a lot of time on TikTok during the pandemic. While TikTok gets a reputation for stationary dances and the app Mr. Trump tried to cancel, it’s actually got a strong education component integrated. Of course like most apps these days, they’re extremely sensitive to your interests and responses to content so algorithms are incredibly specific. Consequently, the algorithm shows me a lot of fierce individuals with heaps of information I have genuinely never heard before, relating to anti-racism and feminism theory. Through those short form videos so many sparks of curiosity have happened and I’ve been enjoying catching up on history. They’ve inspired me to learn more about the fascinating obstacles so many people of color and women have had to face in order to be remembered in history. We live in the world we do today because of these individuals and we aren’t even really educated because most of the teachings we’re exposed to have been filtered and censored to protect white supremacist ideals. 

This is where intersectional feminism comes into the conversation. I recently watched a PBS docuseries entitled “Reconstruction: America After The Civil War” that focuses on a time period I have been grossly uninformed on. I learned that the book and then the consequential historical ideology entitled The Lost Cause actually inspired the Daughters of the Confederacy to fundraise for lobbying ability to approve textbooks and therefore, rewrite the South’s experience to corroborate their feelings of being attacked by what they would consider a hateful Union. 

In reality, the slavery system’s hierarchy really just outstretched its harm to the poor white population of the south, as well as the suddenly freed former slaves. The DOC used their white privilege to literally rewrite history and contribute to the hate that BIPOC communities experience on the daily in this country. When looking at this situation at face value, one could point out that an organized group of women fundraising and lobbying was an incredible achievement for the times and therefore, must be feminist. However, their using white privilege to advance white supremacy has had more harmful effects than we could ever fully unpack. This led to generations of communities fully believing that the Confederate flag is about heritage and not protecting slavery, and that is so damaging to the ideal of equality. 

It’s docuseries and media like this that makes me think about the idea that if one’s feminism isn’t intersectional, then it’s not really feminism. We’ve seen Flavia Dzodan’s quote, “My feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit.” plastered on t-shirts and Instagram graphics for years. Feminism is all about equality, right? That’s the point. The point of Black History Month and Women’s History Month is to “celebrate” all the achievements of these populations, pointing out all that they’ve added to our society and progress. And they further prove why they deserve seats at the table to make the big decisions. Why white supremacy is a danger to all and counterproductive because we can see with these monthly focuses that we owe so much more than we were taught to these communities and individuals. 

Personally, I don’t love that we have these month long emphases because our lives and actions should constantly be informed by the brave acts we celebrate. We should always be searching for ways to dismantle white supremacy within our language, actions, and choices. The conversations should be all year long, at any opportunity, and not just in specialized panels or discussions because it’s February or March. We are affected every day by our history and it informs everything we do. 

I was actually watching YouTube and an ad came up for TD Bank. Their messaging focused on how “Black History Month is more than a month”. The lessons are bigger than a month long celebration with BHM ads, decals, and special offerings. This commercial highlighted how the emphasis during February is merely an extra push to make the effort every day in our quest to rid racism from our society. The awareness gets the message out and serves as a reminder of all the hardships and accomplishments Black people have overcome and woven into history. 

I have to make decisions every day with my reactions, words, and these choices result from instinct and whatever access to my knowledge base I have at the moment. I have countless opportunities to learn more and question my own unconscious bias, but I have to practice and be consistent. I have to constantly bring up anything that doesn’t sit well and at least try to discuss it with someone. 

My whiteness affords me a great deal of privilege and I’ve heard a lot of racist comments in my short 24 years. I’ve been scared to speak up in the past in fear of being terminated or reprimanded. I’ve leaned into my privilege in order to not have to speak up or be looked at to speak up by anyone nearby. Of course my being a biracial person also means that I’m still affected by racism and understand very deeply how it hurts personally and how it hurts to watch family go through it. For this reason mainly, I try to use that privilege that I have to constantly bring up the microaggressions or comments that just don’t sit right with an anti-racist lens. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely terrifying, but it’s a small risk in my life compared to the countless fearless individuals that have come before and risked far more for worse consequences. For these individuals, I can keep them in my heart and back of mind for any opportunity where I can make a difference or speak up. It’s not just a month long commitment, it’s a commitment to a better life for all.