Why can’t women stop screaming?
Leading Social Impact as a Woman during the Coronavirus.
Woman assessing fire damage, iStock
“Now, when learning about racial or gender inequality due to the pandemic, I experience many things. Shock is not one of them.”
The below excerpt is from an April 30th article about patriarchy in America.
Post 2020-Election Day, it feels as relevant as ever.
This feels oddly familiar.
I remember the blurry days after the 2016 election. I would stay up past 3am, searching the web for answers. I came across an election-reaction article from a woman of color. Shannon Barber was politely telling the world that we (white people) were all freaking idiots (rightfully so). Oh, you’re shocked he won? Didn’t you hear us?
Why didn’t we listen to black people?
BIPOC peers were screaming at the top of their lungs that race was still an issue (see: police shootings, opportunity gaps, healthcare bias). They told us over and over White Supremacy lives while black people die. “ White men are given a lifetime pass of privilege.”
White people did not listen.
Now faced with Trump’s election results, the racism (and xenophobia) pervading America since 1601, was undeniable, legitimized, sanctioned, and on full view. White supremacy built this house so why would it be a surprise racism was his path to victory?
Clueless white people cried out in disbelief that Trump won. Many lamented, how could this happen? Not here. Not now. We’ve come so far. We who had the privilege to not deal with it daily, decided racism (post-Obama) was cured.
Meanwhile black people unanimously said,
How could you possibly be shocked?
As Shannon said, [Black women] were screaming to white people that “the mother fucking house is still on fucking fire.”
Read the rest of “Why Can’t Women Stop Screaming?” here on Medium.
