Of gender and race

Hello, I am back. Its been a while since I have blogged.

I am going to talk about race and gender. I won't go about it in an academic way but just in general. In fact, I will use my experiences, so before you get ready to attack me,  let me remind you these are my experiences.

I talk a lot to people about equality issues, but sometimes what I hear makes me wonder whether some people realise what being different means. I have come across strong women who can do anything to find gender inequality. They jump on anything that has a whiff of sexism or come close to it, but when it comes to race,  they seem to lose interest.

So, I was having a drink with a group of friends talking about some of the things we have experience as women. Similarly, our experiences had ranged from being whistled at by a group of men to sexism at work. Our stories which I will not discuss here were harrowing. What I haven't said yet is I was with my white friends. So, I felt it was equally important to let these lovely ladies of the additional burden I face as a black woman. However, it was clear they were not interested in putting themselves in my shoes. They initially listened but the more harrowing my experience of carrying that extra burden, the more they seemed not to understand. It was more like 'Oh  I am sure people do not go out of their way to be racist'  and 'Oh they didn't mean it like that!'

Honestly, if a touch on your bum is sexual harassment, why on earth would you think being called an angry black woman , lazy and got an attitude as a black woman because I have voiced my opinion is OK? Isn't it a form of being made to police my self thereby losing my voice? And, honestly, it resonates with a lot of things for me as a black woman - colonialism etc.

Remember I am not trying to water down people's experiences but we have to remember other than both mangoes and apples being fruits - the comparison doesn't go far. We shouldn't be allowing ourselves to think one inequality is better because if we are for social just our focus should be how to end it not comparing who is hurting most.

We need to think intersectionality!