Don’t you want a fresh start?
A chance to love yourself unconditionally?
You’re worth the risk.
Who will you become when you trust yourself, fully? Do you fear what it costs to live courageously? Do you fear radical change will make you more lonely?
Maybe some fear around leaving the United States in pursuit of ease, care, adventure, and deep rest—or going all in on your desire to build a village or a business or a house or lifelong, committed partnership(s)?
I read this newsletter yesterday.
Four paragraphs reiterated some news. The reality of the climate crisis is a state of emergency for the working class and a genocide for poor people. Alert: Black women—ahem, robocops and flooding in New York, Cop City in Atlanta, and increased criminalization of houselessness in Los Angeles—do not delay your exit.
I urge you to be unapologetic about what your plans are to survive and flourish over the coming months and before next year’s November. Take seriously what life will be like in the United States over the next five years which includes a new presidency tackling climate policy, a deepening police state, and a global, financialized economy.
Waffling about the quality of life that you want because the standard of living you desire is associated with another class status is a death sentence. I don’t believe Black women have money blocks as much as we have a conscience around class.
There is no better time to sharpen your opinion about money.
It’s become popular to lean on an interpretation of the present moment as a crucible for cultural rebirth and world building. That’s cute and fine and half true.
Calls to organize for building a just, sustainable, and free world are abundant.
It is also crucial that you decide for yourself how you want to live your life in the meantime. We organize and life goes on in the meantime. Fires, floods, earthquakes, and rising Fascism goes on in the meantime. Relationship ruptures, layoffs, and premature deaths go on in the meantime.
Who are you being in the meantime?
What kind of life do you want to live in the meantime?
It’s okay to aspire to a richer life in the meantime. There is increased antagonism toward wealth hoarders. Rightfully so. That’s not you. When do you want to retire? Do you want to buy a home? Do you want land? Do you want to live close to your blood relatives?
Somebody might be in your ear about the meaning of urgency and emergency. It is a dangerous overcorrection to adopt a belief that there will always be more time.
Time is precious and limited. Be gentle with yourself and clear with yourself: the United States runs on a shaky foundation.
Choose your struggle wisely.
Get your people and get your money.
Go all in on you.
Enroll whoever you need to into the vision you have for a better life and know that everybody can’t and won’t go with you. Build with the people who will take extraordinary risks to live ordinary lives.
Make a decision about your circumstances. Some people have the option to build better networks where they are in the United States. For them, the culture of their environment nurtures their nature.
You are different.
Expanding your horizons will give you room to bloom.
As a human and a writer, it is both a survival strategy and a responsibility I have chosen to develop a critical political and economic point of view concerning Black women’s economic lives which varies across geography. The right to place and purpose, which we call functioning citizenship, is not made equal for all Black people in the United States.
Black women are creating micro economies and cooperative communities across borders to help as many Black women as possible live carefree, easeful lives beyond the United States’ borders.
The level of people power needed to bring the majority of Black women in the states the care, safety, and protection we need is unfortunately a steeper, forlorn path to relief than the paths Black women are making ourselves for other Black women to live full lives, wherever we desire, unbound to the states.
The distinct exploitation of Black women’s labor in 21st century America, broad individualism, and ongoing exposure to sexism and white American racism, the fear of trans and gay and disabled Black people, and the unique hostility towards single Black moms—listen. That’s a level of community care certain kinds of Black women need in the United States that Black women ourselves will, inevitably, be the backbone to achieve.
Nope.
So when are you moving?
December?
Either one of the -UARIES?
June?
The gaslight will be strong.
But you’re no idiot. You know anti-Blackness is global . . . etc, etc.
This is not an escape fantasy.
It is your life.
It is rational.
It is a choice.
Your people are waiting for you.
Send this to a Black woman who needs a reminder that it is safe to take her beautiful, Black ass someplace else. I want to help you live your dreams. I am the queen of options. Let’s brainstorm yours.