Recently, I had the honor of attending The Black Women’s Voices in the Age of #MeToo symposium at UT Austin where the #MeToo Founder, Tarana Burke was the keynote speaker. The evening provided enlightening and thought-provoking information in deed.

The audience was filled with students, community activists, faculty, and members of the public, with male and female alike. As I listened to the speech it became apparent that there is much more that I could do to support this movement and that #MeToo is growing in numbers and support, both financial and otherwise.

As an African-American Woman, I know that there is a huge difference between me and my caucasian counterparts. The difference is so clear and transparent because I choose to see it as it is, not as I would like for it to be. There are many experiences of discrimination that I could list here, but that is for another post. How and where I was raised has a lot to do with the way in which I handle myself; I do pretty well in very toxic, unwarranted situations. I do have friends who are different from me, and I do not use the word friend lightly. I never thought of myself as a racists, but can spot one a mile away.

When I think about the Women’s Movements such as my Empowerment Blog, #MeToo, #Women’s March, #Times Up, ad infinitum, the appearance is that these groups are focused on all Women. When I attended the event at UT and listen to Women talk about the various movements for Women, at times the conversations appeared to be racially divided.  I believe that has a lot to do with the fact that the country and many places in the world are still racially divided.

How do we as women expect to gain leverage in becoming equals or being treated differently when we do not stand together in a united front? Yes, there are groups that do and some celebrities are inter-racially united, however from a holistic standpoint, we have a very long way to go. We still discriminate against each other, but expect men to be non-discriminating against us. Some women voted for #45 because they did not want to vote for a woman. Really?!

In my humble opinion, before women can ask others to treat us with respect and equality, we must learn to be united and treat each other the way we want to be treated. I have never been one for the pettiness and triviality of cat-like behavior and really don’t have the tolerance for it. If I see something, I say something. If I can give someone a compliment or encouraging word, I do it. If I can be supportive without bias, I am there. It would be nice to see more of this on a larger scale than we do now. It just seems like the situation that is focused on regarding disrespect, racism, and discrimination is very prevalent amongst women.

Change starts at home, right where you are. If we want to be united, it is very easy to do. The question is, do we really want it? Are Women really united? It feels divided. Kudos to those who are the change agents. My prayer is that we all can follow the trailblazers who continue to set the positive examples of All Women being united, not either one group or the other.

Peace and Love,

Grace Sowtrue