It’s Black History Month, and we should be active in celebrating a group of people who are often overlooked in the United States — black women.

It doesn’t take much to learn about great women who might not be at the forefront of our attention. Powerhouse women such as Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Anne Moody, Grace Hamilton and Millie Bailey have made significant contributions to the world we live in.

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But, moving beyond celebrated leaders of the past, Black History Month is also about celebrating the black women around us now. The activists, mothers, educators and students at Syracuse University.

It’s about recognizing the “miracle working black mothers who can make a feast from empty kitchen cupboards, put their children through college working low-wage and dead-end jobs and who, despite their circumstances, make sure that their children have safe homes,” said Danielle Taana Smith, a professor of African American studies at SU, in an email. “In many instances, these black women are invisible in the public arena.”

The lived experiences of these strong women shouldn’t be ignored. And we’ve already started to turn words into action.

Movements such as #SayHerName highlight women victims of police brutality. The movement and hashtag were created due to media representation of police brutality heavily focusing on men of color but not women of color.

Clearly, social media has amplified many people’s voices. But we can do more.

“Every time we speak up and speak out, we take back our power,” Smith said. “Silencing is a tool of oppressors.”

It’s critical to be active in educating yourself. We, as students, hold that responsibility. By saying, learning and recognizing the names of the black women who started and now continue the fight, we are doing our small part to amplify their voices.

Jewél Jackson is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at jjacks17@syr.edu.

Published on February 17, 2019 at 7:41 pm