Black Woman Silenced

artwork created: February 2017

The Black woman is constantly silenced. By white men, by white women, and even by Black men. She is consistently and wholeheartedly the front runner in the fight against injustice and equality, and just as consistently muted by those who say they fight for the same causes, and by those who share the same skin. She is the one who is silenced from all directions. And when she gets a chance to break the barricade, she is met only with punishment. She is faced with sometimes fatal aggression, taunted and accused by her "allies", and stereotyped as loud which they then use against her. She is pressured to stay silent behind her brothers - fearing that an ill word might damage not only his achievements, but those who look like him in a world that already doubts him; even if the words she wishes to speak are those that would ensure her own safety or the safety of others. She is silenced by those who call themselves her sisters; but will throw her under the bus, into the fire at the first given chance or the mere mention of her own individual struggles. She is stereotyped by those in power, who use
the stereotype of the "angry loud Black woman", which they created, against her to stop her from becoming equal. But in spite of all this, the Black woman is resilient. She is a fierce warrior followed by a fierce army of sisters who share her struggle. So in the continued fight against being silenced by all those who surround her - the Black woman must surround herself with her true sisters, and together they must fight the aggression, taunting, accusations, and stereotypes in the name of equity and eventual equality.