The Strength of Black Women

An in-depth look into the emotional, mental, social, and physical strength of Black women.

[purplemattrrr]

“We are African women and we know, in our bloods telling, the tenderness with which our foremothers held each other. It is that connection which we are seeking. We have the stories of Black women who healed each other’s wounds, raised each other’s children, fought each other’s battles, tilled each other’s earth, and eased each other’s passages into life and death. We know the possibilities of support and connection for which we all yearn, and about which we dream so often.”

Sister Outsider— Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger, Audre Lorde

[janaecamri]

Your feminism is not feminism if it’s not intersectional.

[gabbykatherine]

[blackfeminismsresource]

Radical black women need to tell our stories; we cannot document our experiences enough.

bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (via blackfeminismsresource)

[inevitablerevolution-blog]

If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression…

Combahee River Collective (via inevitablerevolution-blog)

[tayarijones]

“If I fall, I will fall five-feet four-inches forward in the fight for freedom.” Civil Rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer died on this day in 1977

[feministism]

[sdotcartier]

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N ✨

https://sdotcartier.tumblr.com

[youngblackfeminist]

“[The Strong Black Woman] is not seeing Black women as flexible humans, but Black women’s strength becomes people’s inward treatise of how others – supposedly the strongest in society – should react to their oppression. By ignoring this, it is not a violent, but a subtle psychological trap that keeps Black women in boxes, therefore making the other more harmful myths – from Mammy to Jezebel – easier to understand and accept. The Strong Black Woman is still a box – now the box is shiny. Black women known only for their oppression-fighting still makes them slaves to oppression in this paradoxical manner. And since this oppression is continually ongoing and hurtfully evolving, it makes their strength – once something admired and taught in black communities – superhuman, as if they can bear anything. The whole basis of racist thought is making certain human beings feel as if they are not fully people; but now where it was sub-human, it is now super-human. Either way – the person the Black woman is still not considered fully a person. Thus, it becomes another way of ignoring them – because they can handle it – which is the second pier of racist thought: silencing the victims.

Excerpt from “When Strength Becomes a Weakness: Why the "Strong Black Woman” Has Sat Next to Mammy, Jezebel and Sapphire" by Alexandria Sewell (via youngblackfeminist)

Though this piece challenges, and in the end disagrees, with my choice to use the term “strong” when it comes to Black womanhood, I very much agree and admire this quote. It is raw and honest, and though it is hard to digest because of how emotional this message is, I really do think that this thought process is valuable and incredibly insightful. 

(63 words)

[iameriwa]

Please stop calling Black Women Strong...

As a compliment. “Strong,” is why our mortality rate in medicine is high. Strong is why our pain is not taken seriously. Strong is why there is less empathy for us. Strong is why we’re put last in every movement because we can “handle it.”

Black Women’s bones are not made of steel, our skin bruises, and our tear ducts work. Black Women cry when we are feeling pain. Black Women feel anxious when we are scared. Black Women battle mental health. Black Women have body images. Black Women FEEL. BLACK WOMEN are human.

Things to say instead of “you’re so strong”

Try:

“I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now, but I’m here to listen”

“What you’ve been through is horrific. Your emotions are valid”

“Thank you for being vulnerable”

“You don’t have to suffer in silence, we will make change”

Model /Author @brihallofficial

#BlackWomenMatter

[gabbykatherine]

I completely understand where this post is coming from when it speaks of how being called “strong” feels more like an insult than it does a compliment, and that is because, to a certain degree, that is very true. Black women have incredibly high mortality rates when it comes to giving birth, and unanimously difficult experiences with healthcare professionals. Sadly, this is arguably due to the fact that the medical knowledge gained by doctors, is also knowledge that is tainted by their human prejudices.

Black women are also afforded less empathy, understanding, and care, because of the assumption that we are all strong and incapable of feeling emotions that are felt universally by everyone else. We feel sadness, depression, anxiety, angst, happiness, lust, anger, resentment, jealousy, and everything in between. I very much agree with all of this.

But I also think, because we endure all of this, we are strong. Because our bodies, minds, and hearts take so much pain and strife, day in and day out, we have become knights as much as we are queens. We can protect, just as much as we need protecting. Our bodies, though not made of steel, are comprised of unbreakable matter that I think is worthy of being called strong. I am human, there is no doubting that, but I am also a strong Black woman.

(225 words)

[fyblackwomenart]

Mother of Mysteries, Acrylic on Wood  – Sue Ellen Parkenson

[gabbykatherine]

This is so beautiful, it reminds me of images of the Black Madonna. 

(13 words)

[kobikiyama]

[naturalhairhow101]

[gabbykatherine]

To my Black sisters in need of love

 Warm brown eyes,

Melanin skin.

Are you aware that you glow from within?

Coiled black locks,

Lips the shade of brown sugar.

Everything you do leaves those in wonder.

Your laugh sounds like golden bells

And your warmth feels like newfound honey.

You’re a celestial being,

Comprised of the darkest night

And the brightest daylight.

Remember your worth

Remember your strength.

You are loved

My sister.

(74 words)

[gabbykatherine]

She’s beauty and she’s grace...lol

[gabbykatherine]

If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.

bell hooks

[gabbykatherine]

“I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity “

-First Lady Michelle Obama