Representation matters
Nikesha Elise Williams |
TEDxFSCJ
• April 2018
Representation matters: The conversation you’ve always wanted to have with a Black woman –
At a time when Black women are still stereotyped as mammies and jezebels, sapphires and welfare queens, the need for Black women to be represented has never been greater, explains Nikesha Elise Williams. In language both poetic and polemical, Williams traces the wonder she experienced as a youth seeing Black women perform the works of Black women artists, the helplessness she suffered as the victim of racist slurs, and the disbelief she still feels knowing today’s women of color do not enjoy the representation they’ve earned in politics, the workplace, and the media. Yet beyond the whirl of trending topics and hashtags lies the simple message Black women would impart: See us. The real us. The vulnerable us. Not just your version of us.