A friend sent me an intriguing American Psychological Association article on unmasking racial microaggression and a clip of Franchesca Ramsey, of the viral Youtube segment “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls,” on the Anderson Cooper Show.
Watching this video kinda choked me up and welled my eyes with a quick cry. It seems that so many just don’t get how humiliating and tiring it gets being demeaned on a regular. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT’S EVER OKAY TO TOUCH ANOTHER PERSON’S HAIR WHILE TALKING TO THEM? Maybe it doesn’t make you racist but it certainly makes you ignorant. I have had to push back curious hands from my hair. I’m not some furry animal you can pet and you have no right to anything that is a part of my person. But, as you can see from some members of the audience, this point falls on deaf ears mostly. It is no wonder we take refuge in God, church, each other, and food. Black women are marginalized and microanalyzed all the day long. Either someone is trying to screw us or screw us over and some days it’s just too much. The APA article on microagression could have used this video clip as a show and tell for the racist microagression article. Black women stifle themselves in an effort to not be seen as stereotypical and we over achieve so that we’re not excluded and then, whenever it’s convenient, our stifling and overachieving is overlooked because someone more palatable showed up and is perceived as being a “better fit” for our jobs.
