Self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”, Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia
Friday 18 October is World Menopause Day. Since 2009, the world has celebrated the changing lives of women and campaigned to break the silence around women’s lived experience of ageing and bodily change and foster a greater awareness of the changes women experience during the menopause and the perimenopause and the support options available.
bell hooks’ work explored the interaction of sexism, racism and economic disparity. Her seminal work Ain’t I a Woman? was named one of the 20 most influential books published in 20 years. A lifelong activist, hooks insisted that social theory had to speak to and impact the experience of the oppressed to have value: that “our intellectual work will never impact on their lives if we do not move it out of the academy”.
Following on from Black History Month, here are some tips gleaned from the leading lights of the current wave of Black businesswoman entrepreneurs and educators.
Having reached the top of their respective professions, Black women are reaching back down to help up their sisters, creating opportunities where none existed before. The availability of cash is the single most heavily limiting factor for almost every business and venture capitalists have historically been extremely reticent about lending capital to Black people and business women, let alone Black businesswomen. Happily, Black women are now stepping in to fill the gap and provide seed funding for Black-owned SMEs, as well as creating platforms to support networking between Black businesspeople and connecting venture capitalists with business founders. Others are supporting their communities by setting up community interest companies that enrich and develop people from disadvantaged backgrounds, encouraging them to succeed and thrive.
The costmetics industry has historically worshipped an exclusively white image of beauty, as if the sculptures and paintings of the Rennaisance were the sole yardstick by which the diversity of human beauty was to be measured. Black women are only now forcing the question about where there place is in the beauty industry, overturning the exploitative practices of hair straightening and filling gaping holes in the market with products that meet the needs of women with darker skin tones.
From news anchors to venture capitalists and community leaders, this small assemblage of Black British women shows the range fields in which Black women are achieving.
Beyond the songwriters, actors, comedians and other performers taking the stage in the creative arts, Black British women are commanding leading roles in the media as presenters and sporting personalities.
Frustrated by the lack of disabled Black women in the media, Kym and Jumoke created a platform that brought together a blog, YouTube channel and podcast for sharing stories and talking about the intersectional discrimination faced by Black, disabled women that led to careers as influencers with a regular circuit of public speaking at festivals, in the press and at universities. They were recently named #Merky Books superheroes.
The creative arts have long given expression to the downtrodden and the oppressed, enabling those with a less formal education to give affective expression to their experience. Still, mainstream media were created as exclusively white spaces and even now the appearance of Black women in key roles is groundbreaking. Still, Black women have spent decades laying claim to their share of the publishing infrastructure and are now taking centre stage in long running television and film franchises. Just take a look at these Black British women taking the creative industries by storm.
