For every injustice faced in America, there has been a social movement to combat it. Oftentimes, the faces of these movements are white or Black men and the occasional white woman. However, the one face we rarely see leading social movements are that of a Black woman. This is not because Black women do not have a hand in social change nor is it because they do not experience social injustices. This discrepancy is due to the fact that Black women are often excluded from the very movements in which they create. Their intersectionality brings a unique perspective to social issues and they utilize them to enact a call to action that will improve the lives of men, women and children everywhere. This motive soon becomes insignificant as the public chooses the faces and narratives in which they believe most and it is often not from a Black woman. As centuries passed and social media has become so widespread, the use of these platforms serve to amplify the movements and well as enforce the exclusion of Black women on a larger scale making it hard for them to escape the vicious cycle of being the savior and the silenced.
For centuries, Black women have put the needs of the other communities before their own. During the time of Reconstruction and the emancipation, Black people began owning their own land and businesses but were still missing the right to cast their ballot and have more of a say in political affairs. Black women fought alongside Black men using their newfounded schools, churches and newspapers as larger platforms to promote their ideas and efforts. Sadly, their hard work would often fall on deaf ears as white women and Black men were often acknowledged as the speakers and leaders of social movements. However that did not stop them from asking for the help of Black women nor did it stop Black women from giving it. Being in such unique positions as Black women, their intersectionality left them torn between two movements as they were advocating for both communities in which they were a part of. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who were adamant supporters of the Fifteenth Amendment, often spoke up about how its ratification would further increase the discrimination and prejudice faced amongst women (Gordon et al. 48-49). Despite their initial efforts at universal rights, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870 and Black men were given the right to vote while women still had no say in politics.
After achieving one milestone, Black women continued their fight for women’s right to vote. This issue had been on their agenda since 1848 when the first women’s right convention was convened in Seneca Falls, New York. Black women and men joined together to learn of ways they could share the momentum for voting within their own communities. However, many suffragists, like Nannie Helen Burroughs, believed the efforts would be more impactful if the movement was a collaborative effort between Black and white women. For a few years, women of the National American Woman Suffrage Association worked with Black women to emphasize the challenges they all faced in not being able to vote. However, many of their Southern white members felt that the inclusion of Black women within the organization would hinder the support they would get, which led them to adopt a narrower agenda for women’s suffrage.
After this exclusion, Black women organized societies within the churches and schools in their communities and served as sectors for national organizations like the National Baptist Women's Convention and the National Association of Colored Women. A better future seemed upon them with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 until select states passed laws that further restricted Black women from voting. Another 45 years passed before the Voting Rights Act was enacted and secured Black women the rights in which they were finally due, for now. As our society progressed and new means of advocating were created, their energy, efforts, and empathy continued to be used to benefit others and the digitalization of social only amplified this mistreatment
One of the largest social movements advocating for the justice and protection of Black people today was founded by Black women. The Black Lives Matter movement started as a social media hashtag created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometiin in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013. It was not until after the death of Mike Brown and Eric Garner in 2014 that the trio mobilized the movement with demonstrations to ensure their frustration concerning the mistreatment of the Black community was seen, heard and felt. With a turnout of over 600 people to their Black Life Matters Ride in St. Louis, the trio realized that “people were hungry to galvanize their communities to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people, the way Ferguson organizers and allies were doing” . They went on to create the Black Lives Matter Global Network infrastructure whose sole purpose is to support the development of new Black leaders who encourage and empower the fight for all lives within the Black community. However, for years, social media advocacy has only surged in response to the deaths of Black men. According to the Pew Research Center, the Black Lives Matter hashtag surged in response to the murders of Black men such as Michael Brown and Philando Castile. On average, the hashtag was used nearly 30 million times on Twitter with an average use of 17,002 times per day. However, the most recent and notable surge happened in response to the murder of George Flyod. Pew Research Center reports that roughly 218,000 tweets were published with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag the day after his death. Once the bystander’s video was posted and protests spread throughout the world, the use of the hashtag passed 1 million on May 27 and 8.8 million the following day. This the highest surge that the hashtag has had since its creation in 2013 and it is still used in thousands of tweets daily.
Over the course of these surges and protests, there were a number of Black women who were killed at the hands of law enforcement. 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor was killed after Louisville Metro police accidently entered her home in the middle of the night on a no-knock warrant as part of a narcotics investigation. Kathryn Johnston was 92 years old when she fired self defense shots at an undercover police officer who entered her home unannounced. While her shots missed him, several of his 39 bullets killed her in her home. Kayla Moore, a 41-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed by Berkeley police in her home after officers responded to a mental health crisis call made by her roommate. Instead of transporting her to receive treatment, the officers attempted to arrest her on a warrant for a man, 20 years her senior, with the same name she was given at birth which led them to suffocating her to death in the process. Aiyana Stanley-Jones was 7 years old when she was shot and killed in her sleep by Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid on her grandmother’s home. These are a few of the names from a long list of women whose stories have been overshadowed on social media due to the national response to murder cases of some of the Black men previously mentioned. It is ironic how a movement that was created by Black women that sought to amplify and protect the lives of all Black people is the same movement that does not give the same effort when their lives are senselessly taken. The deaths of Black men are recognized on a national level as celebrities and politicians use their faces and the movement as momentum for social change whereas the deaths of Black women are often an afterthought or not even thought of at all. It is sad to say that the hijacking and silencing of Black women within their own movements has not happened once, but twice.
The Me Too Movement was started by a black woman by the name of Tarana Burke in 2006. She initially used the term to refer to herself and other women of color who had been sexually abused in the hopes that it would comfort a 13-year-old Black girl who had been sexually assaulted. Burke stated that history has repeated itself multiple times as the voices of our marginalized communities often become “no more than a footnote” when they are not the center of our movements. After listening to the story of the 13-year-old victim, Burke decided to open a nonprofit organization whose purpose was to help inner city victims of sexual abuse and harassment share their stories with white police officers and rid them of the stigmas associated with women of color and sexuality. Ten years later, she went on to start the Me Too Movement to reflect the abandonment of Black women as sexual assault survivors. The movement was meant to remind the society that alongside white women, Black women were also emotionally damaged and deserved to heal from their sexual abuse; ultimately, putting Black women at the center of the movement. Just as the Black reformers before her, she believed real change could only come if every person from every part of the world lended their voice to the cause. However, years would pass before the movement would get the recognition it deserved and Burke’s name was often omitted from widespread coverage.
In the fall of 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a photo with the caption “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet”. As a result of this tweet, over 61-thousand people replied with ‘Me Too’ and shared their stories and empathy with those who had similar experiences. People had begun accrediting Milano for the idea and were singing their praises to her for starting the conversation before she tweeted an hour later that Tarana Burke was the original creator of ‘Me Too’. However, the damage had already been done. The following day, headlines were riddled with Milano and her innovative Me Too movement and Burke’s name rarely appeared in any of the articles or social media news threads. The decades of work put forth by Burke was overshadowed by Milano and the number of wealthy white women who used #MeToo to share their stories in response to the accusations of misconduct against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein. The hashtag was used more than 19 million times on Twitter starting from October 15 through September 30th of the following year, which resulted in an average of 55,319 tweets per day. The international attention the movement received has forced many men to be held accountable for their actions , such as Harvey Weinstein and Larry Nassar, and their victims, who were mainly white women and girls, to receive justice and begin healing. However, rarely have Black women received justice, healing or even recognition for their horrific experiences. Irony once again rears its head as a movement created by a Black woman for the betterment of their entire community is the same movement that minimizes their involvement and excludes them entirely.
The creation and advancements of social movements by Black women is not a new occurrence. There is power that lies within their intersectionality as it allows them to have a better understanding of how widespread these issues are and how to best unite those who share similar experiences. For both the BLM and Me Too Movements, the digitalization of these movements created a space in which the affected community could have continuous dialogue on the mistreatment they face thus keeping the spotlight on said issues. They have mobilized efforts through marches and meetings which have opened society’s eyes to the true mistreatment of their communities. However, the realization of how this skill also oppresses them starts to set in when the spotlight only shines on the issues faced by select people. With social media, users have associated these movements with a specific type of victim and scenario. For the BLM, social media surges occur when a Black man publically interacts with a white police officer and is involved in a life-ending struggle. For the Me Too Movement, social media surges happen when a white woman shares their story of being sexually assaulted by a man in a position of power and influence. However, the stories of Black women who are killed in their homes or sexually assaulted by people close to them do not prompt a third of the national outrage or social media surge that their counterparts receive. Ultimately, Black women are, and have always been, taken advantage of when it pertains to social movements. Their ideas, bodies, voices are desired when it is time to fight against social injustice of others; however, that same advocacy is not reciprocated when it comes to the social injustices they face.
Black women have spent centuries fighting for social justice. From forming secret societies within the walls of their churches to marching in the streets of major cities, they have lended their voices and their experiences to a larger cause to benefit the lives of all. Their efforts have served to bring about various changes both big and small and continue to do so as we move further into our progressive era. However, their inability to escape the repetition of history has led them to be taken advantage of and minimized within their own movements. While the age of social media does a phenomenal job at amplifying the social injustices they seek to change, this does little to benefit them as they are often overlooked on these platforms. The social silencing of Black women has risen to a new level with social media as their pain is reinforced by not being recognized alongside the communities in which they fight so hard for.
This paper was prepared for the Introduction to Women and Gender Studies course at College of Charleston taught by Professor Meg Goettsches
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