Performing Happiness: Emotional Labor & Reproductive Rights
Performing happiness is exhausting. Sometimes I do not feel like getting out of bed or doing hours worth of work for little recognition. Sometimes I do not feel like being the angry Black woman that is disregarded for being whiny and disagreeable. The reality is that the demand of constantly being inviting, happy, and accomodating is detrimental to my health.
For many Black women worldwide the cost of performing happiness is our physical and emotional well-being. It is quite literally fatal as stress and anxiety reduce our life expectancy. We are told to smile, loosen up, chill out, and not make everything that deep. If only our ignorance came that easily. Instead it comes at the expense of us. The sexism, classism, and racism which dominate our world usually trickle down the oppressive ladder until it falls upon us (and our Native and Latinx sisters) to make sense of. We are decimated by violent government policy and social expectations which police our bodies. Black women's happiness is not allowed to be our own.
The demand for Black women to be content connects to larger issues. For instance, Black women's reproductive rights are under constant attack. The struggle for access to adequate information about contraceptives, healthcare, and child care is ongoing. Demanding that Black women smile and behave adds to these repressive systems. In both cases our bodies are not our own to operate, but objects controlled by the outside world. From catcalling to reproductive rights Black women's need to be authenticity ourselves is crucial to our survival.
The next time you have the urge to tell a Black woman how to feel here's an important tip: don't. Our emotions are not up for discussion-- just as our reproductive rights should not be. We have the right to be angry. Just look at history. We have the right to free child care. We have the right to information that helips us make life saving decisions about our bodies. Do not police us. Instead listen closely to our stories. Then advocate for us (because it's also not our jobs to die fighting alone for our rights).
Listen. Act. Repeat.
Take a moment to call your representatives in opposition of Kavanaugh's appointment to the United States Supreme Court in support of Black women. And to the Black women who go to work, raise families, and fight tirelessly for our community, I see you. You are important. You are resilient. You have a home here.
