The Juneteenth Festival Celebration hosted by Black on the Block at Los Angeles Center Studios on June 16, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Kayla Oaddams / Getty Images) |
BY JHUMPA BHATTACHARYA | When I speak about the critical need to center Black women’s joy and liberation in our quest to build a truly inclusive economy, I often get the inevitable question from a non-Black person of color: “But what about my people? Aren’t you being exclusionary?”
I’m never surprised by the question. Rather it reminds me time and time again how white supremacy has hardwired us to believe that Black people are different from the rest of us, further driving the false narrative that our struggles are not connected. Instead, we play the oppression Olympics and fail to see how anti-Blackness impacts all people of color. This is the trap that white supremacist thinking lays for us, and it’s imperative for our collective liberation for us to recognize it and do the work to overcome it, especially for younger generations who are facing an unhinged conservative attack on racial and gender justice gains older generations were able to obtain.
Previously, I worked on creating equitable K-12 schools and after-school programs. I had a strong focus on English Language Learners and would speak and write about how they are often misunderstood, ignored and/or overlooked, making it essential that all educators understand how to meet their needs. No one ever questioned my focus or thought it to be exclusionary. I never heard, “But why English Language Learners?” I assume it’s because it sounds absolutely ridiculous and embarrassingly racist.
Now, however, when I speak about combating anti-Blackness and creating an economy that nourishes Black women as a pathway for economic justice for all in my work at the Maven Collaborative, I often get the question: What about Latinos and Latinas? Asian people? The Indigenous?
The very fact that people feel compelled to ask the question is exactly why it’s so important to talk about anti-Blackness specifically.
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