From day one in this country, our work has helped hold up entire systems, from caregiving and teaching, to organizing, leading, and innovating. Yet somehow, when budgets get tight or priorities shift, we are the first to be shown the door.
2025 has brought massive layoffs across industries, and guess who has been disproportionately impacted? Black women… again. Not because we’re not qualified. Let’s be honest we’re over qualified. Not because we don’t outperform expectations; because, again, we do that too. But because the perception of Black women as “just labor” instead of “leaders” has never gone away.
Even in places that claim to value inclusion, knowledge, and equity, Black women are pushed to carry the workload, mentor people nobody else supports, fix DEI problems, show up, smile, and perform gratitude for opportunities we created… yet still aren’t protected when cuts come.
It’s exhausting. It’s dehumanizing. And it’s structural.
I study this. I live this. And I am committed to building spaces where Black women don’t just survive the system, we reshape it. We are not replaceable labor. We are the reason so many institutions function at all.
If no one else will say it, I will: Black women deserve better. And we’re not waiting for permission to demand it.
