Dear Elsa Barkley Brown,
I, too, am a storyteller.
I seek to make sense of the chaotic mess, the hundred sides of every story, the
many rhythms of jazz improvisation, the strands of dialogue that overlap and
intertwine. I understand the urge to simplify, linearize, make symmetrical the disparate
and sometimes contradictory experiences that people have. I think the instinct
to normalize one’s own reality and assume others live the same way is inherent to
humanity. But those in positions of power are able to do so, while the rest of
the world is left feeling ostracised, alienated by their own experiences that
are apart from the perceived ‘norm’ that only applies to a few.
The fact is, within
popular perception, a body considered neutral is always a white man, a white
woman cannot escape being othered because of her gender, and black women are
defined by their race and gender equally. You urge the storytellers and historians
of the world to realize that our accepted construct of womanhood is unique to
white womanhood, and that white women’s experiences are as much defined by
their race as their gender – not to mention, dependent on the experiences and
roles taken on by the women of colour surrounding them. While I think that in
the 26 years since your essay was written, the media has vastly improved in
terms of representing the stories of diverse people, we are still leaps and
bounds away from where we should be. We have yet to, as a culture, come close to truly recognising the “joined [histories] occurring simultaneously,
in connection, in dialogue with each other,” that all women have.
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