It's been a minute...

I hadn't had a chance to blog in a few days...but when I did get back I found out that one of my favorite bloggers had decided to call it quits. Brownfemipower was a source of support and inspiration and I'm going to miss her words and energy very much.

I don't want to spend time writing about the situation that led her to make this decision, but I will talk about the issue at hand.

Solidarity between Women of Color is not a given (if you're a person of color then you know this too well). We are not in solidarity by default of being of color. There's a lot of work that goes into building "solidarity" (for a lack of a better term). It's an ongoing process of continual shaping and reshaping of our politics based on acknowledging privileges and challenging one another.

More importantly, it's about listening to one another and hearing each other out. When you've lived most of your life in spaces that attempt to exclude you, silence you, ridicule you, exploit you, ignore you, discipline you...when you've been either invisible or too visible in such spaces then you should know damn well that we NEED TO CREATE spaces where we can hear one another out. We NEED to create those spaces, our spaces.

I want to stress the importance of listening to one another. There are complex intersections of oppression that some of us deal with...we carry heavy loads. We have rage. We have internalized shit. We have wounds that run deep. Building solidarity in the context of all this is some seriously difficult SHIT.

I don't have the answers. I'm not even asking for any. It just makes me sad when a potential for solidarity-building falls apart. It makes me sad that those very difficult conversations (the ones we need to have so badly) often don't happen. And when they do...well, you know the rest.

BFP, I'm gonna miss your words.
Cuidate mujer.