A WORD ON BELIEVING BLACK WOMEN

March 2021

Rarely do I find myself enamored by the lives of celebrities. However, recently I found myself watching in abject horror as Oprah interviewed Meghan Markle.

My body felt uneasy, my soul was stirred, and I ended the viewing feeling utterly exhausted. 

Watching the interview, I was reminded of my own experience a year ago, when I was forced to blow up my life in a major way. I chose to walk away from a career I spent ten years building because the toll on my emotional well-being was a weight I could no longer bear. The similarities to Meghan’s situation were stark: regularly facing race-based aggression as my colleagues looked on in silence, being gaslit into thinking my work was subpar and that I was not a team player … and the list goes on and on. 

In this interview, I was also struck by how deeply colorism—which derives from white supremacy—permeates through every facet of our society. See: a member of the Royal family inquiring about “how dark” Archie would be—a ludicrous question at best, but even more so given that Meghan has a skin lighter than mine and Harry, the baby’s father, is white. 

I find myself questioning what it looks like for folks (white and non-Black people of color) to believe Black Women. Why is it only when we achieve a level of celebrity or expend an enormous amount of emotional labor by recounting our trauma that folks are willing to entertain our stories of pain and abuse?

Dreaming of a world where I am believed the first time. 

With grace, Sinikiwe