For many, the current political climate and trajectory in the United States feels hopeless. How do you survive the boot of fascism crushing our lives, while at the same time raising kids, tending to loved ones, working, paying bills and just trying to live? How do we fit in time for resistance when our system is designed to make survival our only priority?
I don’t have the answers, but as a Black woman, I can’t help but notice that the loudest voices of despair are coming from white-bodied people. For many white Americans, this is the first time they have truly seen the face of evil that is the American empire, and it is heart-wrenching—it is overwhelming and, in a country built on notions of rugged individualism, it is jarring and makes people feel helpless.
I do know for many Black Americans, particularly Black women, this moment isn’t weighing on us in the same way that it is for our white counterparts. Make no mistake, we are concerned, and we have our own fears. But to be Black in this country has always meant holding multiple truths: Knowing the harsh brutality of this country that has historically sought to destroy us but also managing to create the joy that has kept our people alive despite this country’s insistence on trying to destroy us.
If anything, this administration lays bare the reality that we have always known—the reality that our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents made sure we understood. The reality that the empire was never here for us, and we would have to fight, resist, navigate the rounds and responsibilities of daily life, and live and find joy.
It is that cultural and ancestral knowledge that led Black women to call for rest after Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. It is why in the months since the election, social media images of Black women outside of the political arena has been one of joy, as Black women have taken to line dancing and donning cowboy boots and fans, while grooving to “Boots on the Ground.” Black women from Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris to the regular sistas in the community have all been spotted online doing the Boots on the Ground dance.
To the outsider, to see Black women reveling in a line dance while the country is overtaken by fascism and the return of overt hatred can seem jarring—and yet, it is that joy that has always led Black women to go above and beyond in the work of freedom. It is the ability to break bread, laugh and move, and take joy in whatever form available that has strengthened our organizing, formed deeper bonds, and kept us grounded in the work.
Black women in this country used to have to take care of the white man’s home and raise and feed those white children. Sometimes from their own breast but still we made time from the scraps of time left to nourish and sustain our own families. To create hope in our own families when all seemed hopeless.
Black and brown women in the United States have always had to exist in a state of duality and wear many hats and, if anything, our white counterparts will need to learn how to move to that state of duality as fascism grows more entrenched in our systems.
Existing in the worst of circumstances requires an intentionality around how you will live, knowing when to pick up and when to put down while never losing sight of the larger picture and your collective humanity. It is knowing that there is no perfection and allowing yourself the grace to be messy as needed—as well as extending that grace to others. It is also a letting go of what was as we lean into what is, while building ahead.
This moment, while terrifying, is also an opportunity to build something better if we can stop clinging to the “should.” The shoulds no longer serve us, as the checks and balances fail to protect us. Instead we must face reality and accept that safety is no longer a given, reaching for joy in the storm and letting that joy hold us in the hard moments.
That is how we will all survive.
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Image by Noelle Swogger via Unsplash
