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Editor's Letter: Why I Am Glad Black Ballad Isn’t For Women Of Colour

When Black Ballad started in 2014, there was a huge question I had to answer: “is Black Ballad for women of colour?” I was always quick to say no. The truth of the matter is, that even in 2014, I felt that the term women of colour was both positive and problematic. It felt as though women fell into two categories: white women and women who are not white. To me at least, it further cemented the idea that when it comes to women, white women are afforded individuality. While, women of colour are forcefully, but neatly lumped together in a metaphorical box, robbing us of our idiosyncrasies and concealing the differences in our identities based on our race. 

Yet, the women of colour movement has unified women who are Black, Asian and Latina in order for us change opinions and even laws. It has created a safe space where women who aren’t white formed allyships through listening to each other and exchanging words in conversations out of the white gaze. The movement women of colour has made some of us who aren’t white feel not so lonely when you hear stories of similar childhoods, having to navigate the office differently to our white peers and circular conversations of what an intersectional feminist movement should look like. There is without doubt some comfort in the women of colour term.