For My White Male Friends and Colleagues

Speaking as a Black Woman, I doubt that you can imagine the disappointment we felt over the 2024 presidential election. And now salt is being poured into our wounds as DEI initiatives are dismantled, and women's rights are under attack. Democratic senators are speaking of the "unraveling of our Democracy," while we shake our heads in disbelief.

Many young Black Girls have been deeply wounded by Kamala Harris's defeat, and by the knowledge that the majority of Americans would not vote for a Black Woman. I, too, am very disheartened by the fact that Americans would not vote for a candidate as qualified as Kamala Harris simply because she is a Black Woman, and would prefer to see a convicted criminal occupy the highest office in the land.

Many of you have witnessed situations where a qualified Black Woman was denied a position or promotion or salary increase, and was given no truthful explanation for the decision. Many of our Black Male colleagues simply don't have the power to protect us, and in some cases, are in active competition with us for the good graces of whites.

Black women have nurtured and sustained white American families for centuries, and have never received adequate appreciation or compensation for it. As Malcom X famously said, "The Black Woman is the least protected..., most disrespected person in America."

I know first hand how it feels to be passed over for positions or contracts because of my race and gender, and to watch unqualified white males receive all the praise and perks simply because they are white and male. Indeed, this was the foundation upon which our country was built. In 2024 we came so close to correcting so many wrongs. But unfortunately, our country chose to move backwards instead of forward.

On this Martin Luther King Day, my message to you is that we need your protection now more than ever before. Stand up for your Black Female colleagues, because you never know when you may need her to stand up for you.