Black womxn we love.
This is a love letter to the leaders of a new tomorrow. Those who are divinely called to transform our world because we choose to love. It is us, Black womxn, beloved sistas, queens, Black queer women and trans and trans femmes. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
In her visionary work of art, All About Love, author, visionary, teacher, and lover, bell hooks says, we must have a “love ethic” within our culture to challenge the domination of human life and the supremacy
of certain bodies over others. She teaches us that love is not individualistic in nature. It is and has both the power to become a revolutionary action and a new culture. bell hooks says, “a love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully, and well.”
This love ethic is the foundation for a transformational culture that will liberate everyone. This culture centers the most marginalized. This culture sees all beings as interconnected so that there is no form of supremacy to separate us. In this culture all bodies have access to their full dignity and humanity. This culture holds that if we are free, then everyone is free. This culture requires a radical hope and a spiritual belief in transformation.
Black womxn, we are the keepers of this love ethic. We are the movement builders, the designers, the visionaries, the prayer warriors, the boddhisatvas, the mothers, the caregivers, the leaders and the guides. We are love.
bell hooks does not reflect on love as simply the emotion. She uses a definition of love that says “love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” She goes on to say that, “Love is an act of will — namely both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”
Radical love is an action that can offer hope in the face of despair, grief, and domination.
When the claws of white and cis-straight male supremacy have wrapped around the confidence vessel that is our throats, we have found our voices. This letter is for the ones with a freedom song in their heart that yearns to come out. This letter is to clarify the origin and center the power we hold. For this power cannot be given to us by any living being. It was placed in us by our ancestors, spirit, our God or the universe.
Some people reading this may not truly know a black womxn because we must constantly protect ourselves, but a Black womxn knows you. Some people may truly not SEE a Black womxn, but we see you. We have studied you in order to survive. You may not love a Black womxn, but a Black womxn has probably loved you even if it almost killed her/them.
When Covid-19 struck the U.S. in March, my intuition and ancestors told me that “Women of Color Would Save us All.” My foremothers told me the world would need to value the love cultural value of interconnection, and Black womxn would have the vision and the plan. When the pandemic became more serious, I realized how much we needed to rely on the wisdom and brilliance of the bodies who have been most marginalized in this world — Black womxn. As the world panicked and hoarded resources and power, I knew our medicine, our ancestral resources, and “the culture” would aid in our healing.
When our bodies are taken at disproportionate rates due to Covid-19, we continue to love. Even as we are the caregivers who’s jobs are taken at the highest rates, we are also the leaders of corporations and organizations who centered the dignity and humanity of all employees and center the most marginalized.
In the face of a world-changing pandemic, many companies and organizations tried to continue to operate in an old paradigm of exploitation that requires over-functioning and production over humanity. Those old ways have proven insufficient when the systems of oppression and exploitation have no access to the bodies to do the labor. Working from home, if you were privileged enough to do so, became home school teaching, daycare, and eldercare. Interdependence, love, and care for the most vulnerable became essential our survival. Unfortunately, the labor of the most vulnerable became essential and deadly. The world would have to begin waking up to what Black womxn have always known.
In a recent Forbes article, Carmita Semaan, the founder and President of the Surge Institute, a national nonprofit focused on leadership development for education leaders of color, a form of Liberated Leadership was summed up in this quote, “ At Surge, our first priority is making sure our people have everything they need for their well-being. This has included holding weekly wellness check-ins, providing space and resources for mental health services, and abandoning performance ratings and formal evaluations, which feel deeply out of touch with our current reality.” This is love leadership.
The truth lives in the voices of Black womxn.
When Breonna Taylor #Sayhername, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade,
and George Floyd were lynched and executed by white and police bodies, I felt the truth rumbling in my stomach. The truth would come from the rumble in our collective stomachs and the ache in our hearts.
So, the world needs to listen, believe, and follow those who understand what it means to be invisibilized, ignored, exploited and objectified to hear the answers to the questions of how we will transform the world of domination and control to a world of love and justice. Even if dominance and supremacy whispers that, “we are not enough” or that “we are too much.” Remember it is a lie told to harness our greatness. Reject it!
When Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, and Patrisse Collours stated, without equivocation, “Black Lives Matter,” they were targeted as terrorists. Then their wisdom was stolen and attributed to male bodies. As if Black womxn could not make the most powerful statement to launch the movement of our generation. Their bodies and words were targeted with the vitriol of state violence and used as a foil for white fragility.
Yet, seven years later, corporations, legislators, non-profit and foundation leaders worldwide are screaming, “Black Lives Matter.” Even if those statements ring hollow and you can hear the echo of hypocrisy, the message is ubiquitous and there is no turning back. These womxn had the vision and truth, and action behind their words. They were fearless. This was love leadership.
Recently, Sharon Cutter, The Nigerian-born founder of Uoma Beauty, a Los Angeles and London cosmetics company that caters to black women, came up with a social media challenge to test the sincerity of the companies: She launched the #PullUpOrShutUp campaign on Instagram to push companies to reveal the racial makeup of their workforce and executives.
Black womxn, we have been holding leadership accountable even through the trauma that silently tries to break our bodies and silence us out of fear of retaliation for generations.
Fannie Lou Hamer was first introduced to Black liberation organizing by singing freedom songs to calm the fear of Black bodies facing the tyranny of white police officers. She was later evicted from her home for attempting to vote, shot at, and yet she kept singing. She was beaten by the Mississippi State Police for organizing Black voters, and yet she kept singing.
She later founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and told 
the prophetic truth of the denial Black humanity and voting rights in America at the Democratic National Convention. Her “song” was so powerful that she struck fear in President Lyndon Johnson’s heart. So, he created a press conference as a distraction to silence her. White supremacy is slick and stealth, but not creative. This is common pattern of domination.
Black Trans Womxn and Black Trans Femmes have shown the world the lives and leadership of ALL Black bodies must be valued or will continue to perpetuate the violence that harms all of humanity.
The Black Visions Collective in Minneapolis, Minnesota, envisions a world in which ALL Black Lives Matter and has been integral in supporting the creation of legislation that will lead to justice for all.
The reckoning is here, and we will not midwife or mammy the world through it.
bell hooks teaches us, “Love and abuse cannot coexist.” We must not whisper ideas into the ears of those currently in power to quiet or soothe their fear of the uprising. We cannot nod our heads in silence, wave church fans, and nurture the fragile humanity of the bodies who have caused us the most harm. That is not love.
In a Love Culture, we will lead and be cared for body, mind and spirit.
We will not do the labor of others to keep them from doing harm, certainly not for free. Black womxn, we will not birth genius ideas only to have them stolen and exploited by people who are not skilled or held accountable for justice. Our labor must be appreciated, not just with words, but with equitable compensation and care for our bodies.
We have been dreaming of leading and will lead the way to justice and liberation for generations to come. We will do so by centering our own healing and trusting in our leadership.
Black mothers and caregivers know what schools need to best serve and educate all children. If you have mothered (which does not mean you gave birth) a Black child, you have a divine right, deeply loving and imaginative vision of Black children’s potential and capacity.
Black womxn, we know how to develop wellness, criminal justice, healthcare and mental health, and economic policies that best serve all communities. We have experienced and witnessed every form of trauma and have the medicine for our own healing.
Without a focus on healing and building on the assets of our communities, we will not see policies that will have sustainable impact. Policies that pathologize Black communities are steeped in a deficit orientation driven by the embodied dominance and of supremacy that harms ALL communities. That does not come from us!
Black womxn’s visionary dreams will save the world because we have the unwavering ability to see and tell the truth in love.
Love and truth will be currency in the world we envision. When we truly love and center ourselves, others will learn how because they will follow us on instagram and youtube to try learn how to thrive in the world we create.
When choose ourselves, when we heal ourselves with our own medicine, dream and birth new ideas and ways of being that center our bodies wholeness and humanity, there will be a blueprint for humanity that does not overvalue whiteness. Those who lead from domination, control, and silent complicity will get out of the way, so we can do what we have always been over-qualified and ready to do — lead with love.
Erin Trent Johnson is the CEO, principal coach, and founder of Community Equity Partners (CEP) a coaching and leadership development firm that helps leaders and organizations in the education, non-profit, government, finance, legal, and tech sectors committed to creating equitable practices and culture. Erin also serves as the Senior Advisor for The Equity Lab.
At her core, Erin is committed to justice for communities of color and supporting the leaders and communities to achieve their vision of liberation.