thehbwproject:

I am done choosing
between my womanhood and my blackness. 

Stop giving me fictional white
female characters and telling me “these are the fictional women to
admire, the ones that break the mold, the feminist icons, the
representation you’ve been longing for.” 

Stop asking me to
squint to see myself represented on screen. Stop telling me to “wait
my turn”, to support shows with white female leads as though this
was a rare occurrence, as though there haven’t been thousands of them
through the years. As though white women haven’t been held as the
pinnacle of progress and feminism on TV since Lucille Ball.

Stop telling me that
a white woman playing a spy, is innovative and feminist when you’ve
had Wonder Woman, Charlie’s Angels, Scarecrow & Mrs. King and
Alias before Agent Carter.

Stop telling me that
seeing Jessica Jones, a white female character with PTSD, on screen is
a long time coming, a revolutionary feminist act, when Joss Carter,
Abbie Mills, Olivia Pope, Sasha Williams and Michonne aren’t afforded the same
treatment regarding theirs from writers, media and fandom alike.

Stop telling me that
“romance is not part of the show” when said show is built on the
loss of the White Male Lead’s love interest. Stop labeling black
female characters as one half of a “brotp”, as the supportive
friend, a mammy that does everything but wipe the white man’s ass or
tuck him into bed, only to prop up the Random White Woman In The Background as the
obvious choice for a new, better suited love interest.

Stop giving me
Trojan Horses, those black female characters I’ve longed for, the
ones I finally can see myself in, the ones that you’re praised for
creating and writing, the ones you make money off of only to kill
them later, once they’ve served their purpose.

We are not your
first step towards success, we aren’t a tool to be used to avoid
criticism, or appease higher ups afraid of losing
money because of the lack of diversity and representation in their
shows.

We are not either
women or black, we are both and we deserve to be spies, the fated
love interest, the damsel in distress, the selfish one, the
vulnerable one, the pinnacle of feminism and progress, the one who’s
turn has come, the one who was a long time coming.

Stop giving me a
drop of water and calling it the sea.