In 2021, as I filled out my college applications, Stanford asked me, “what is the most significant challenge that society faces today?” As a Black woman living in America, it was quite frankly one of the easiest questions I have answered. While I recognize that society can be larger than the United States, I chose to narrow my scope in answering this question to my communities and the United States.
While I sit in the wake of the outcome of the recent election like many others, I am brought back to the answer I wrote nearly 4 years ago because sadly it still stands true. Freeing the Black woman, to me, is the most significant challenge that society faces today. As the Combahee River Collective put it, “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”
As I finish up my undergraduate degree while writing a thesis pertaining to the inherent value of Black women, I find it important to remind the Black women around me… I see you, I hear you, I love you, and I will continue to fight for and with you.
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