I haven’t seen the movie Hidden Figures yet but I’m a huge fan of the three stars and black women in general – #blackgirlmagic so it’s definitely on my #mustsee list but I’ve been seeing rave reviews of it everywhere and what has really struck me about what I’m reading is how rare it is for black and brown women to be so adored and revered. We’re much more likely to be demonized, sexualised and just generally flattened into one simplistic form or another – whichever serves at the time. Cue rolling eyes emoji here.
That’s why this coming month’s daily project is all about celebrating Black History Month by learning a little more about the women of colour in history who you perhaps may not otherwise have heard of. Because, guess what? We were there too. And despite our intersectional oppression, some of us still managed to shine bright. This month, we’re celebrating that!
To start you off, here’s a good post about 16 Women of Color who made History in 2016
What’s exciting about this post is the wide range of women and the scope of what they’re being recognised for. Because guess what? We’re more than one thing. There’s Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha (the pediatrician who sounded the alarm about the impacts of lead poisoning on children in Flint, Michigan) to Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (an icon of the queer and trans community who, as a Black trans woman and participant in the Stonewall riots, has been fighting her entire life on behalf of the most marginalized) to Constance Wu (who has speaking out against Hollywood’s Whitewashing of Asian and Asian-American characters), to name just a few.
Go, go read the whole post. Come back soon to see who we’re learning about here every day this month!
hapa, nyumbani 