For the better part of a decade, it was common to see hashtags and think-pieces admonishing people to support Black women and to trust Black women, but in the last few years, as the post George Floyd fatigue started to settle in, we started seeing less and less of that. Until, that is, the months leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when it briefly flared into popularity again to trust the leadership of Black women.
Sadly when it came down to voting time, though, people chose not to trust the leadership of a Black woman and now we sit fully entrenched into a fascist decline that threatens to upend the American experiment—as the Trump administration reshapes the country into a white nationalist wet dream.
While much is known about the horrors faced by the Latino community and immigrant communities of all kinds—as ICE becomes the largest and best-funded law enforcement agency in the country, staffed by the most base and despicable people and cheered on by mega-villains such as Kristi Noem and Tom Homan—less is known or discussed about Black folks in general and Black women specifically under this regime. Partly that’s because what catches our attention in the 24/7 news cycle is the most sadistic and horrific imagery in a world that no longer reads.
However, the reshaping of America is also affecting the Black community and specifically Black women as it becomes clear, at least to me, that this administration wants to reshape society so that Black women no longer serve a function unless it is to serve white-bodied people.
By publicly focusing on immigrant kidnappings and deportations, our exhausted minds and souls are not paying attention to what comes next. But the framework for what comes next is already being worked out quietly, and I fear that our collective inability to hold multiple truths and horrors will allow the next phase of this horror show to roll out with little pushback—particularly as white allies struggle with the enormity of the situation.
Recently, MSNBC published a piece about how 300,000 Black women left the labor force in a three-month period of this year. This regime’s federal downsizing is disproportionately impacting Black women, by touching the sectors where Black women have been historically concentrated: education, health, and community-facing roles. This is on top of the over 500,000 Black women who have never returned to the work force since the pandemic started. The public sector has historically been the one place where Black women could almost achieve parity with good-paying jobs, benefits, and pensions but under this administration, that lifeline to middle-class stability for Black women and our families has been shredded. Throw in the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in both the federal government and private sector, and Black women are struggling.
Yet no one is talking about this outside of Black femme/nonbinary spaces as we all struggle with this new reality. It is estimated that the real rate of unemployment for Black women is upwards of 10% and yet that is getting little to no attention. If the overall unemployment rate were that high, you best believe it would be getting a lot of attention. However, because of how society on the whole sees Black women—or, rather, doesn’t see us—it is crickets.
The thing is that none of this is news to me; it was only news because one mainstream media outlet decided to spend a few minutes on it.
Even before the new administration, it became clear to me that we were moving away from the mantras of supporting Black women and our work. For over a year now, I have seen requests for my own training and consulting work come to an almost complete standstill. This year, I have only had one paid speaking engagement and that was at less than half my usual rate (but it was for a small non-profit whose work I respect). As of this writing, I only have two confirmed speaking/training engagements for the remainder of the year. For years, I was looking at anywhere between 15 and 30 engagements per year.
With the mainstream embrace of independent writers and creators and more white men of means coming into this arena, it means people shifting support from Black women and femmes. I can assure you that almost any Black woman whose work you follow online is struggling as paying patrons and subscribers drop off despite people consuming their work if it is freely available. No doubt the economic downturn has played a role but as someone who has been in the self-funded arena for over a decade, I don’t believe that is the whole picture.
The Patreons and Substacks allowed marginalized folks a way to work for themselves and, as I have written before, these arenas have become gentrified by white writers and creators who a few years ago, would have turned their nose up at such work. But now they are out in force creating their own newsletters and such.
None of this may seem like a big deal until you look at the historical roots of where Black women worked prior to the gains from the Civil Rights movement and throw in the current trajectory of this country which is being guided by Project 2025. Then, suddenly, high rates of unemployment for Black women along with being locked out of self-employment starts to feel more sinister.
Black women like my grandmother were relegated to domestic and factory jobs. In fact, my maternal grandmother over her lifetime worked both as a domestic in white homes and later landed a factory job with benefits. The day I graduated from college was a proud day for her as she marveled that I would never have to toil for white folks the way she and other elders had—that I could become anything. For a while that was possible. But it clear to me that if this regime continues as it is, they are envisioning a world where there will be less Black folks—particularly Black women—with good jobs and more Black women helping those white women the regime is encouraging to have babies. Or we will be relegated back to other kinds of work that our grandmothers and great grandmothers had to do.
Too many well-meaning white folks and allies are ignorant of history and don’t understand the threats to Black women that likely lay ahead, based on our country’s history. Less than a hundred years ago, in the early 1900s, several states forced Black women to work outside their homes as domestic workers. Given the administration’s penchant for all things old and a desire for a gilded age where white men sit upon the heap, the forced return of domestic workers isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it sounds.
After all, we are watching masked men kidnap people off the streets of America with the blessings of the government and then deny those people due process. We are watching the systematic dismantling of all social progress and a return to an ugly place with a heaping side of fascism for a new twist. But technology and the fast pace of life keep us unable to focus because they have mastered the art of flooding the zone and keeping us unable to work in the present and on the future, which is something they excel at.
Black women have been both the backbone and at the forefront of progress in this country and the last thing this regime wants is Black women who are positioned to be the architects of a new way of being and leading the collective forward. So, hobbling us by taking away our professional and financial freedom and security is a great way to dismantle the generations of collective organizing and soul experiences that Black women hold in our ways of knowing and being.
I will say this: Now more than ever, we need the leadership and organizing experience of Black women, femmes, and non-binary folks. By supporting them, we are ensuring our collective long-term survival. Think about how you can support them.
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