A little over a year ago, 92 percent of Black women voted for Kamala Harris, the overly qualified Black and South Asian woman, to run the United States over the White man convicted felon who has made most of our fears for what his presidency would mean for us come true. Last year was an emotional roller coaster that ran the gamut from rage to huge disappointment to slight depression and borderline despondency to renewed clarity and resolve to be as self-reliant as possible. Black women knew that the fight we inherited from our parents, grandparents and previous generations would continue, and life would get harder under a man who ran a campaign of race-based hate, misogyny, scapegoating, fear and promises of retribution. Adding to our mix of emotions is the fact that the majority of White women and too many non-Black people of color, whom we knew would be targets of his “ethnic cleansing spree,” refused to heed our warnings.
The nearly all-White administration of people with extremely limited previous experience for their positions have put a lot of time, effort and energy into finding ways to unravel systems of opportunity for people who were historically excluded to stay and get ahead financially, socially and physically. The laundry list of dismantling is so long and efforts to keep track of what seems to be daily, almost hourly assaults on institutions, policies and programs has been exhausting.
We have been deeply harmed by the 47th president and his “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” policies that intentionally resulted in massive job loss, intentional erasure of our culture from institutions and curriculum, censorship, and other barriers to our voices being heard outside of our communities. Some 77 million people betrayed us and put their own self-interest above our well-being to put him in office for a second time, even after the first time caused harm. We now have more proof that some purported allies are fair-weather at best.
Many of us were in survival or rebuilding mode in 2025 — only five years after the pandemic that disproportionately affected the Black community and George Floyd’s murder, which opened the eyes of some who had refused to believe that systemic racism and police brutality existed. Already exhausted, we have struggled to manage “outrage fatigue,” alternating between attempting to keep track of all of the rapid-fire insults and unraveling of programs while trying to keep ourselves, families and communities mentally, physically and financially viable. Among other activities, we have participated in online gatherings, taken up hobbies such as knitting, painting and cooking to calm our nerves, and stayed prayed-up in order to confront and overcome anti-Black sentiments. We were all Letitia James and Fani Willis in less public ways — scrutinized, criminalized, questioned and challenged about our qualifications, experience and right to exist in spaces and roles outside of institutional servitude.
Black women got the message that (as usual), White people’s comfort is more important than Black people’s truth.
We are part of a long line of people who have had to fight for centuries to gain every right and opportunity afforded wealthy White men. Within the past 60 years alone, we have marched, boycotted, participated in strikes, had voter registration drives, run for office, written, spoken, taught, shouted, prayed and triumphed — only for some recent immigrants of color to look down on us as they take advantage of rights gained through our sacrifice and blood. But despite our brilliance, resilience and wisdom from generational experience, too many people did not listen to us. We warned about what would happen if a former businessman with six bankruptcies and history of racial discrimination and sexual assault, former reality star, twice-impeached former president who encouraged an insurrection and stole classified documents and habitually told “untruths”, ran the country for a second time.
The last presidential election confirmed (again) that the majority of White women do not share our concerns and refuse to listen to us. And now we are so busy navigating the purges, name-calling and rollbacks on progress that we don’t have the emotional capacity to hear and accept apologies from those who ignored us in November 2024. Companies and institutions showed that at the drop of a hat, they will abandon any promise made to us and other historically marginalized folks as soon as there is a demand that they do so. They showed that their alliance, commitment and focus is fickle and not to be taken seriously. Institutions that “obeyed” the administration by throwing out programs, curricula, exhibits, materials and anything else that represented or taught people almost anything beyond straight White-centric male-focused “Christian”-dominated information might just stay as exclusionary as possible.
History (which is being eliminated from too many educational spaces) shows that the hate-spree will end at some point — the current dismantling is not sustainable if we are to have any semblance of one country. Eventually, some new laws will be put in place. There will be efforts to repair the enormous damage inflicted. But it will take great efforts to regain the trust of those betrayed. Individuals, institutions and organizations have shown by their actions that the needs and concerns of Black women are regarded as disposable “priorities.”
A kumbaya moment between Black women and those who ignored, stepped on and abused us is not on a visible horizon. During the short-lived “racial reckoning,” we wrote books and articles, conducted seminars, created curricula, hosted panels in order to educate. And the majority voted to eliminate it all. Black women got the message that (as usual), White people’s comfort is more important than Black people’s truth. Do not ask us to educate you again. Allyship takes more than wearing a blue bracelet or participating in a few one-day marches that have the feels of a costumed parade. Allyship consists of long-term commitment to stepping out of a bubble of protection and actually listening to and following people who are more experienced in challenging power structures.
Black women were ignored for the third election in a row. We are done talking. Until and unless people start listening and following our lead, we will coexist (out of necessity) across racial lines, but efforts to educate defensive people who try to gaslight us are low on our priority list. As a highly educated group of people, we will use our knowledge, skills and insights to build our own companies and take control of our communities on a local level. The November 2025 election of several Black women to lead cities in proved that we will keep moving forward. We don’t need validation from others. We value ourselves. And that’s enough.