It’s a MOVEMENT that solidified the knowing, that I will never forget. I woke up on the morning of January 20th, feeling both ecstatic and anxious, uncertain of how the activities of the day would end. It was on this day, that history would be made in the United States of America. A woman — an Asian woman– A BLACK woman, would take office as Vice President of the United States of America in the year 2021.
Like any other millennial, I ventured to social media to join in on the live reactions and commentary of the day. I knew that while many were overjoyed, many others were not excited about the history we would witness, and that was ok. None of that would take away from what was happening.
As I began to scroll through my timeline, nearly every other post looked similar to the next. What did I see? Black women from all across the country had somehow managed to create a nationwide call for #PearlsandChucks to honor our Vice President. There were elderly women in shirts with the hashtag, babies decked in custom onesies with printed pearls, and women from every walk rocking every color of Chuck Taylors and strings upon strings of pearls.
It was almost immediately that I realized the beauty in such a paradox. Chuck Taylors? Pearls? To me, a great contradiction that symbolized a beautiful range of black womanhood.
To be both feminine and fierce.
To be both gracious and gritty.
To be honorable and hard working.
To be a classic and an original.
Women from all over could bask in the glory of this moment, but for Black women, it was indeed a movement. To be a woman is not to be one thing lacking another, but to embody strength in all of it, regardless of what society says. It was what I always knew we were, but today, in particular, it was realized across the hearts of so many and solidified my knowing…this is, in fact, the year of the black woman.
(There are many more moments that solidify this, by the way.)
What happens to a group of people who can see for themselves the unlimited possibilities that lie ahead? To see that when you strive to make a change, there are millions more ready to support you along the way? There are women still continuing to break barriers, not just for themselves, but for generations yet to be imagined.
Kamala Harris stated, “Though I may be the first, I will certainly not be the last.” There are millions more of Kamala Harris’s across the globe, who may finally receive the recognition deserved for their contributions regardless of their intersectionality as both a woman and African-Asian American. There are millions more Kamalas finding their voice in a world that for years silenced us for the same. There are millions more of Kamala who fight day in and day out, to make our world a better place, in spite of the narrative in the mainstream that our vision couldn’t possibly make a difference in society.
Malcolm X spoke truth to power when he said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” While we, Black women, will never be able to control what others think of us, one can’t help but wonder, what happens when WE control what we think of us? What happens when we step into our power, collectively?
I believe this is the year that you will see in HD, Black women for what we are, what we’re made of, and who we’ve always been because now we have seen it reflected back to us.
penned by Keiona Eady
