at some point in 2020, I became the Black death girl on tv. Nevermind my intellect or expertise on any of the things they originally hired me to discuss. Most of the time, I had to say the things exploding in our collective hearts and hold myself together enough to say them. The days I held myself together poorly ended up being my most “viral” moments—ones I had to be convinced by my friends to post because they were too hard for me to look at. I was never ashamed of speaking up for us—but I was worn down by the assignment. I don’t want the viral moment from Black pain—because I work daily to ensure Black pain stops being the constant. Being that person forced me to consume the media of terror we face in order to be prepared to speak to it. Eventually, I began to avoid it and refuse to watch it. But then it would be time for broadcast. And the video would play over the screen before the camera cut to me. And the unending dam of my grief would open wide on television, live after seeing what I thought I had escaped. The hotbed of these conflicting feelings are so known to us that the heat never escapes my chest. It’s a permanent fixture. Whether I’m responsible to find words or not, share knowledge or not, give meaning or not, the pressure sits like a knot behind my sternum and gives me grief—grief I often don’t have real room to release. Because what Black girl truly has the room right now? We are prepping for virulent misogynoir this election while trying to get one of us across the finish line and simultaneously push for peace across global genocides. We can’t scroll without unprovoked attacks on everything from our dateability to our femininity to our bitterness—all results of the very systems and attitudes you depend on us to fight for you. We set the blueprint on Sunday calls and wake to videos of a brutality specifically reserved for us. I see and thank the Black girls making room. And I see those of us who just can’t bear to yet. And I see you, Sonya Massey. I can’t make another name a hashtag.
at some point in 2020, I became the Black death girl on tv. Nevermind my intellect or expertise on any of the things they originally hired me to discuss. Most of the time, I had to say the things exploding in our collective hearts and hold myself together enough to say them. The days I held myself together poorly ended up being my most “viral” moments—ones I had to be convinced by my friends to post because they were too hard for me to look at. I was never ashamed of speaking up for us—but I was worn down by the assignment. I don’t want the viral moment from Black pain—because I work daily to ensure Black pain stops being the constant. Being that person forced me to consume the media of terror we face in order to be prepared to speak to it. Eventually, I began to avoid it and refuse to watch it. But then it would be time for broadcast. And the video would play over the screen before the camera cut to me. And the unending dam of my grief would open wide on television, live after seeing what I thought I had escaped. The hotbed of these conflicting feelings are so known to us that the heat never escapes my chest. It’s a permanent fixture. Whether I’m responsible to find words or not, share knowledge or not, give meaning or not, the pressure sits like a knot behind my sternum and gives me grief—grief I often don’t have real room to release. Because what Black girl truly has the room right now? We are prepping for virulent misogynoir this election while trying to get one of us across the finish line and simultaneously push for peace across global genocides. We can’t scroll without unprovoked attacks on everything from our dateability to our femininity to our bitterness—all results of the very systems and attitudes you depend on us to fight for you. We set the blueprint on Sunday calls and wake to videos of a brutality specifically reserved for us. I see and thank the Black girls making room. And I see those of us who just can’t bear to yet. And I see you, Sonya Massey. I can’t make another name a hashtag.
God is BEYOND. Black girl. Black EIC. Black designer. Black twists. And the most brilliant Black photographer I know, @kidnoble, whose work is so meaningful, the team ditched their original plan and asked him to photograph me. On the cover of @BritishVogue alongside heroes and friends alike. Incredibly honored to be part of @edward_enninful’s masterful vision, focused on expanding the necessary work of the discipline of hope worldwide. If you had told me a few weeks ago this would have been my first Monday of #BlackAugust, I would have told you it was impossible. But God is in the business of doing exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or imagine. Think about it-the things we don’t even think to ask God for because they are so impossible, He sees fit to gift us. Thankful for God’s favor, but ever focused on bearing more fruit. I could only show up in something for us, by us. So so grateful to @lpeopleswagner for the quick connect to my fave @hanifaofficial, who let me wear this incredible gown from her Pink Label Congo collection for this shoot. Ma. we’re on the cover of British Vogue. The September issue. Pinch me. God is better than good. ______ Rp: @britishvogue The September 2020 issue of @BritishVogue features a special fold-out cover starring 20 inspirational activists dedicated to making a change. Read the full story by @AfuaHirsch in the new issue, on newsstands Friday 7 August. #LinkInBio
God is BEYOND. Black girl. Black EIC. Black designer. Black twists. And the most brilliant Black photographer I know, @kidnoble, whose work is so meaningful, the team ditched their original plan and asked him to photograph me. On the cover of @BritishVogue alongside heroes and friends alike. Incredibly honored to be part of @edward_enninful’s masterful vision, focused on expanding the necessary work of the discipline of hope worldwide. If you had told me a few weeks ago this would have been my first Monday of #BlackAugust, I would have told you it was impossible. But God is in the business of doing exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or imagine. Think about it-the things we don’t even think to ask God for because they are so impossible, He sees fit to gift us. Thankful for God’s favor, but ever focused on bearing more fruit. I could only show up in something for us, by us. So so grateful to @lpeopleswagner for the quick connect to my fave @hanifaofficial, who let me wear this incredible gown from her Pink Label Congo collection for this shoot. Ma. we’re on the cover of British Vogue. The September issue. Pinch me. God is better than good. ______ Rp: @britishvogue The September 2020 issue of @BritishVogue features a special fold-out cover starring 20 inspirational activists dedicated to making a change. Read the full story by @AfuaHirsch in the new issue, on newsstands Friday 7 August. #LinkInBio
God is BEYOND. Black girl. Black EIC. Black designer. Black twists. And the most brilliant Black photographer I know, @kidnoble, whose work is so meaningful, the team ditched their original plan and asked him to photograph me. On the cover of @BritishVogue alongside heroes and friends alike. Incredibly honored to be part of @edward_enninful’s masterful vision, focused on expanding the necessary work of the discipline of hope worldwide. If you had told me a few weeks ago this would have been my first Monday of #BlackAugust, I would have told you it was impossible. But God is in the business of doing exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or imagine. Think about it-the things we don’t even think to ask God for because they are so impossible, He sees fit to gift us. Thankful for God’s favor, but ever focused on bearing more fruit. I could only show up in something for us, by us. So so grateful to @lpeopleswagner for the quick connect to my fave @hanifaofficial, who let me wear this incredible gown from her Pink Label Congo collection for this shoot. Ma. we’re on the cover of British Vogue. The September issue. Pinch me. God is better than good. ______ Rp: @britishvogue The September 2020 issue of @BritishVogue features a special fold-out cover starring 20 inspirational activists dedicated to making a change. Read the full story by @AfuaHirsch in the new issue, on newsstands Friday 7 August. #LinkInBio
God is BEYOND. Black girl. Black EIC. Black designer. Black twists. And the most brilliant Black photographer I know, @kidnoble, whose work is so meaningful, the team ditched their original plan and asked him to photograph me. On the cover of @BritishVogue alongside heroes and friends alike. Incredibly honored to be part of @edward_enninful’s masterful vision, focused on expanding the necessary work of the discipline of hope worldwide. If you had told me a few weeks ago this would have been my first Monday of #BlackAugust, I would have told you it was impossible. But God is in the business of doing exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or imagine. Think about it-the things we don’t even think to ask God for because they are so impossible, He sees fit to gift us. Thankful for God’s favor, but ever focused on bearing more fruit. I could only show up in something for us, by us. So so grateful to @lpeopleswagner for the quick connect to my fave @hanifaofficial, who let me wear this incredible gown from her Pink Label Congo collection for this shoot. Ma. we’re on the cover of British Vogue. The September issue. Pinch me. God is better than good. ______ Rp: @britishvogue The September 2020 issue of @BritishVogue features a special fold-out cover starring 20 inspirational activists dedicated to making a change. Read the full story by @AfuaHirsch in the new issue, on newsstands Friday 7 August. #LinkInBio
SCOTUS GOT US ALL THE WAY F’D UP. if UNDISTRACTED were back, that would be the name of this episode. so before the pod’s Season 3 drops this September (🙏🏾🙏🏾), here’s what the episode woulda been. our options aren’t the ones I want, either. I’ve been publicly and *directly* critical to risk I’d take any day. and—not but— I’m not voting for a person or a party: I’m voting for US—and our ability to fight another day. This ain’t “vote Blue no matter who” or “vote harder.” This is a chess move among many others. Trump doesn’t want to be president—he wants to be dictator. And dictators don’t respond to movements—they CRUSH them. he said he plans to do the same (receipts enclosed). There won’t be a next election. So while we *have* some semblance of Democracy, I’m gonna do my best to use it.l every way I got—long before and after Election Day, in the streets and with every tool I have. It’s time to strategically set the conditions for our struggle-because the struggle will indeed continue. Today, tomorrow, and long after Election Day. #Explore #SCOTUS #J6
To say that the conversations of men I know and once venerated disappointed me when Cassie first revealed her years of torture would be an understatement.
The equivocating from intelligent, well-read, seemingly “allied” Black men was honestly breathtaking. It literally took my breath away to find spaces and people I once saw as safe as clearly not.
Even conversations now are staggering, as people discuss the fate of Diddy’s career or how bad his cover up strategies must have been before they ever mention being disgusted by the terror they saw in full color, or what their role has to be in creating a world among men where this doesn’t happen.
Patriarchy is insidious like that. Because you can easily never be the man who’d raise a hand to a woman—but you can often be the man who’d help him weasel out of accountability, or contribute to cultures that allow this to happen for years, intentionally and unintentionally. Those cultures live in the world, yes—but also in your friend groups. Your professional spaces. Your group chats & your frats. Your churches and your block. Your homes. Your. homes. You cultivate them there just as much as anywhere else.
Have you stopped to ask yourself how YOU help create something DIFFERENT?
Start by knowing this:
We don’t need allies. We need traitors.
Traitors to the patriarchy that raised you, upholds you, and is killing you while it kills us.
Bless every survivor who saw herself in that video—or can’t and doesn’t ever need to bring herself to watch it, because she knows the face she will see is hers.
Bless every woman who has known the emotional, psychological, financial, spiritual, and/or physical abuse, control and narcissism that hides in too many corners and is too little believed. Having experienced one, some, of all of these is never your fault, always too much, and never ever ok.
You are still here. We are still here. And we deserve every ounce of love and protection this green earth has to give. Times 100.
To say that the conversations of men I know and once venerated disappointed me when Cassie first revealed her years of torture would be an understatement.
The equivocating from intelligent, well-read, seemingly “allied” Black men was honestly breathtaking. It literally took my breath away to find spaces and people I once saw as safe as clearly not.
Even conversations now are staggering, as people discuss the fate of Diddy’s career or how bad his cover up strategies must have been before they ever mention being disgusted by the terror they saw in full color, or what their role has to be in creating a world among men where this doesn’t happen.
Patriarchy is insidious like that. Because you can easily never be the man who’d raise a hand to a woman—but you can often be the man who’d help him weasel out of accountability, or contribute to cultures that allow this to happen for years, intentionally and unintentionally. Those cultures live in the world, yes—but also in your friend groups. Your professional spaces. Your group chats & your frats. Your churches and your block. Your homes. Your. homes. You cultivate them there just as much as anywhere else.
Have you stopped to ask yourself how YOU help create something DIFFERENT?
Start by knowing this:
We don’t need allies. We need traitors.
Traitors to the patriarchy that raised you, upholds you, and is killing you while it kills us.
Bless every survivor who saw herself in that video—or can’t and doesn’t ever need to bring herself to watch it, because she knows the face she will see is hers.
Bless every woman who has known the emotional, psychological, financial, spiritual, and/or physical abuse, control and narcissism that hides in too many corners and is too little believed. Having experienced one, some, of all of these is never your fault, always too much, and never ever ok.
You are still here. We are still here. And we deserve every ounce of love and protection this green earth has to give. Times 100.
TRIGGER WARNING. @washu, this can’t be what “Strength Through Truth” means.
I don’t have the words to express how shattered my heart is that a university that just celebrated my own activism, which began in its modern form as resistance to police violence, and celebrated my endurance through precisely this kind of violent response to protest, answered current students, faculty and community the same way these same police departments answered us in Ferguson and across STL.
I am shattered that the home of the Black Manifesto, where Brookings Hall sit-ins and campus encampments as recent as *5 years ago* against Racism, war, labor abuse and more were not only largely uninterrupted and allowed, but resulted in change across the university. This includes anti-ROTC and anti-Vietnam protestors, who occupied Brookings Hall in the 1968 after attempting to raid the rifle reserves on campus and more. They weren’t swept or raided from their encampment.
And after the disruptive and dangerous racism from white fraternity members in Bear’s Den just last month that did not receive this kind of response, this can not be the place I once dreamed of sending my own son.
Is this who you are? Because for many alumni, it stands in clear opposition to who we thought you to be.
Insurrectionists and tiki torch bearers disgustingly screaming “J*ws will not r*place us” being treated better than people who know that killing over 30,000 civilians is an abomination should haunt us all.
I’m not saying anything I haven’t said directly to you on multiple occasions and in email this morning. Grant amnesty for these non-violent protestors, protect first amendment protest and marginalized students, and cut partnerships with war profiteers. #WashU
this I believe, #election edition. late post but relevant: many things are true this election. and plenty of people are telling you what to do, say and believe. I promise to do my best to use I statements and be transparent when I use them. this is what I had the day I posted it, and what I still got today. 98 days. Let’s go.
this I believe, #election edition. late post but relevant: many things are true this election. and plenty of people are telling you what to do, say and believe. I promise to do my best to use I statements and be transparent when I use them. this is what I had the day I posted it, and what I still got today. 98 days. Let’s go.
this I believe, #election edition. late post but relevant: many things are true this election. and plenty of people are telling you what to do, say and believe. I promise to do my best to use I statements and be transparent when I use them. this is what I had the day I posted it, and what I still got today. 98 days. Let’s go.
this I believe, #election edition. late post but relevant: many things are true this election. and plenty of people are telling you what to do, say and believe. I promise to do my best to use I statements and be transparent when I use them. this is what I had the day I posted it, and what I still got today. 98 days. Let’s go.
this I believe, #election edition. late post but relevant: many things are true this election. and plenty of people are telling you what to do, say and believe. I promise to do my best to use I statements and be transparent when I use them. this is what I had the day I posted it, and what I still got today. 98 days. Let’s go.
we in our test case era. white supremacy is throwing some very vile spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks—so they can apply it liberally.
Sign the petition at JUSTICEFORMARILYNMOSBY.COM TODAY to make sure the latest one doesn’t stick!
#BlackWomen #MarilynMosby #Trump #DEI
feeling so many feelings this Mother’s Day.
feeling grateful for all the mothers in me and the one who raised me with boundless grace and Godly intention.
feeling blessed so abundantly that motherhood, a dream I always dreamt I could merge with all my other dreams, found me after loss and fear, right on time.
feeling in awe of the defiantly bold little boy that made me a mama 2 years and some change ago—a defiance that I celebrate because it leads him daily to defy every odd placed on him through the circumstances of his birth.
feeling grief for all those for whom Mother’s Day holds pain, worry, sadness, FOMO or unanswered questions. feeling love for each of them as I hold them in my heart.
feeling incensed on behalf of mothers and children separated temporarily or permanently by weapons of oppression here and everywhere. for the mama’s incarcerated and the mama refugees. for the mama’s who’ve pulled their children from rubble and the children who have done the same.
feeling rage for mothers in Palestine, the Sudan, the Congo, Haiti and all the mothers who, as we do, stopped at nothing to protect their offspring only for man’s evil to force death and destruction despite her best, most sacrificial attempts.
feeling confused for those Black folks who want to become mothers but are rejected by medical apartheid that renders their bodies uninhabitable and their lives worthless through no fault of their own.
feeling strong enough to hold on for my baby, our babies, my mother and all the mothers—because all the mothers in me did the same, such that I might live.
This Mother’s Day, let’s show up for mamas and their babies.
Please support:
@nationalbailout #FreeBlackMamas
@thepcrf
eyesonsudan.net/donate
@meweinternational
@haitianbridge
“Our enemy is not any religion—it’s just a stand for justice.”
Last I saw, Bisan was safe. Her dispatches from Gaza have been essential insight and truth—which remains immensely dangerous for her to do.
Please follow and amplify her and other Palestinian voices that are going to great and dangerous lengths to make sure their lives are seen, their stories are heard, their names are spoken, their humanity is honored, and their rights are defended. 🫶🏾🍉
update: I have turned off comments. Not in a desire to silence anyone, and there were some truly heartfelt comments, especially for Bisan.
But I posted this to center Bisan’s voice, and I want to make sure this post does that.
I especially think her message is critical: that true peace and true justice, by definition, means not making enemies of *each other,* but rather opposing the systems that oppress us together.
Love y’all 🫶🏾
As Vice President Kamala Harris continues on the likely track to become the Democratic nominee for president, there’s been a lot of excitement, a lot of memes and a lot of organizing from Black women to support her campaign. On the latest episode of the Amendment podcast, @emarvelous and @mspackyetti discuss how, as Packnett Cunningham described it, Harris “has proven time and again, just like Black women always do, that we’re always twice as prepared and three times as ready to stand up.” Listen through the 🔗 in our bio via Amazon Music, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
What did the #4thofJuly mean to you? The #BlackBallot is the new weekly series on @newsone. Stay informed, engaged, and most importantly VOTE in the 2024 Election. More on #NEWSONE.com
#LinkInBio! Come double your donation to support our houselessness siblings being moved I to safe & dignified housing thru mutual aid!!
@actionstl got receipts and sets NATIONAL models of transformative people power. So no matter where you are, if you can, invest in the models, and invest in the people.
Thank you @actionstl for ALL you do. #GiveSTLDay
Reflections from Gaza: thank you @allplacesfromhere and @meweinternational for the powerful and intentional storytelling work you do to empower oppressed people, bring peace and healing, lead with love, and challenge us to do the same.
Storytelling has been weaponized to break our ability to see one another’s humanity—but we can reclaim our stories to confer upon ourselves and one another the dignity and freedom we deserve.
Thank you most importantly for lifting the voices of the children of Gaza and being a vessel that they might be heard—not to speak for, but to be heard through.
Please watch and share, and support @meweinternational with your follow, amplification, and if you have it, your funds.
Let’s go get free. #LetGazaLive
hey fam— @kidnoble and I are honored to provide $500 in matching donations today to @actionstl.
Y’all know how I feel about the home team: so many of the movements we have experienced in the last few years set their strategic direction and shared values on the streets of #Ferguson. @actionstl is the legacy of that work, winning critical fights on everything from abolition to health care and electoral justice.
They’ve set a blueprint for what’s possible—and lots of us are matching $500 today so give, give, give!!
You can do so at bit.ly/actiongivingtuesday 🫶🏾✊🏾
#GivingTuesday
hey fam— @kidnoble and I are honored to provide $500 in matching donations today to @actionstl.
Y’all know how I feel about the home team: so many of the movements we have experienced in the last few years set their strategic direction and shared values on the streets of #Ferguson. @actionstl is the legacy of that work, winning critical fights on everything from abolition to health care and electoral justice.
They’ve set a blueprint for what’s possible—and lots of us are matching $500 today so give, give, give!!
You can do so at bit.ly/actiongivingtuesday 🫶🏾✊🏾
#GivingTuesday
