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#AllBlackLivesMatter: The Battle with Representing Black Intersection

 

imageIt’s no secret that cishet black men are the most represented groups of people within the black community, especially when it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement. If this is news to you, well, now you know.

Women and the LGBTQIA+ community are rarely, if ever, represented in mainstream spaces that cishet black men effortlessly dominate, and that degree of erasure varies depending on how many marginalized identities one person has. Any intersectional feminist/womanist who’s every brought up how rocky black solidarity is are immediately accused of “throwing cishet black men under the bus” or trying to separate the community. While the topic is brought up to critique the hierarchy in a movement that’s meant to fight for equal treatment, people immediately disregard it as social justice warriors not being satisfied. But if we don’t recognize the intersections of our own community and try to fight for each branch, all black lives won’t truly matter.

With billions of black people, it’s unrealistic to think we all face the same issues. Aside from being black, we don’t all have the same religion, the same sexual orientation, gender, or sex. The problem, however, is how we refuse to be inclusive to fighting issues outside of the straight, cisgender, male-centered narratives.We’ll fight for cishet, black men like Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, but if these men weren’t straight, it would be a completely different story. If they were trans or women, or, heck, trans women, many of the people who march for them probably wouldn’t even care.

Many black people need to understand intersection and why they’re important. We need to be more inclusive to people who aren’t cisgender, straight, or men. This doesn’t mean we’re “throwing cishet black men under the bus” by calling out that the Black Lives Matter movement shows them more representation, but we demand that black people with other marginalized identities deserve the same amount of advocacy nonetheless. If we continue to not address the many other oppression black people go through, along with additional identities, we completely erase and degrade their struggles. Issues like misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and many others helps normalize this and allows many of us to believe that even though we yell “black lives matter,” if you don’t fit the boxes, you’re the exception.

In order to represent other identities within the black community, we must first unlearn what we’ve been taught either within the community or society in general, do more research, and understand what people who don’t have the same issues as your own face. It’s impossible to be blissfully ignorant and somehow fight for all black lives. Would you fight for a gay black man? What if he was gay, but a black woman? Or a gay black woman who’s also trans? What if they had multiple marginalized identities? Black Lives Matter is meant for ALL black people. Of all identities, class, etc. It isn’t meant to be selective. We don’t pick and choose who deserves justice. We’re fighting for equality and an end to the injustice our people face. Excluding black people who don’t conventionally fit your standards immediately makes the foundation of your activism invalid.

Every intersection of our community matters.

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