People who say “I don’t see color” annoy me (almost) as much as people who say “plays the race card.” The latter group is conveniently ignoring a few centuries of American history that led us to this point. And the first group is trying to shame you for being proud of who you are. For the same reasons I wouldn’t deny being short, in my early 40s or being a native Chicagoan, I will never deny being black nor being a woman.
I am a proud, black woman and no, I’m not going to just identify as an “American.” If I can claim a country, I can claim my skinfolk. If I can claim a city, I can claim a gender. If you have an issue with that, you’re going to spend a lot of time grumbling at this Substack series. I won’t apologize for it. I love my culture. I love how vocal my generation is. And I love people who knew what “woke” meant way back when Laurence “Dap” Fishburne was screaming it after the college school bell rang. (If you know, you know.)
How did this publication come about?
In June 2019, I received an email from The Well—a newsletter geared toward black women. One post stood out to me. There was a former Essence editor who was looking for content for black women on a Medium publication called ZORA. I didn’t know what ZORA nor Medium was, but I pitched my idea on facial recognition anyway. On Juneteenth 2019, that first post was published. I was a writer for Medium for the next four years, largely writing about race (and racism), culture, politics, social justice, workplaces, journalism and so on.
Why Substack?
I’ve written numerous online and print series since 2006. Some were with mainstream newspapers. Others were pretty well-known and lesser-known online news and lifestyle publications. Business decisions on my end were made, and I’m rebuilding. When I made the decision to start transitioning to Substack mid-2022, I crossed my fingers and hoped to regain my 4K followers plus more. Some of you have, and I appreciate it. Come along for the ride on this Substack series and the other five!
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You’ll have full access to read and comment on all six publications:
“Black Girl In a Doggone World™” (one per week)
“Homegrown Tales” (one per month)
“I Do See Color” (one per week)
includes “BlackTechLogy” (one per month)
“One Black Woman’s Vote” (one per week)
“We Need to Talk” (one per month)
“Window Shopping” (one per month)
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