Diversity Of Thought & Supporting Black Womxn

10 months ago I posted a black square on Instagram to support Black Lives Matter. That day forced me to reflect and carry out a self-audit on the shops I was purchasing from, the businesses I was supporting, the books I was reading and plenty more. The honest truth is that, the hype of BLM made it so readily available for me to gain access to these resources, charities and books as every Tom, Dick and Helena was sharing it on Instagram.

However, the past few weeks I have found myself slipping into old, instant gratification habits and have forgotten to be conscious of asking myself these pre-purchase questions: 'where am I buying this from?, who am I listening to? and what authors/entrepreneurs am I supporting?'

Yesterday I started following UK based artist, Florence Given on Instagram and was gob-founded by how fiercely feminist her page was and only just found out that she is the author of 'Women Don't Owe You Pretty'. So, after Instagram did it's 'I-know-you-better-than-you-know-yourself' magic, and being sucked into the vibrancy and ironically the prettiness of her page, I with no hesitation clicked on the link to buy her 'Sunday Times- Best- Selling' book.

But then something stopped me, and I couldn't tell you what it was. Probably the same voice that stops me from buying GAILS coffee and forces me to find an independent coffee shop.

I decided to do a bit more research and read reviews of the book which were pretty shocking. Some of the 'most helpful' ones read:

'Invalidating'

'Virtue signalling and performative feminism'

'Copied from a black woman'

Of course I have taken these reviews with a pinch of salt but the last one hit me differently.

I soon found out that the book many people were referring to was: 'What A Time To Be Alone' by Chidera Eggerue.

I read the bio and reviews and bought this book instead, completely accepting that I cannot pass judgement till I read both, but really was drawn to this book more for obvious reasons.

The whole 5 minutes that this scrolling encounter took, was honestly the reality check I so desperately needed to remind myself how quickly and easy it is, to not only conform to vanity metrics on Instagram, but to conform to whiteness.

After more reflection on the books I read, the podcasts I listen to and the thought leaders I aspire to be like, I realised that most of them were middle aged, white men and women.

And not that there is anything wrong with that, I have just learnt from personal experience, that to truly understand the world we live in and the people that live in it, we need to make extra effort to diversify our thoughts.

I understand this has to encompass learning from different races, genders, sexes, ages, class and unfortunately many more of the minorities that do not get the same lime light.

As a brown-London-born-Mauritian woman who tries her hardest to be a feminist, but more importantly an advocate for intersectional feminism, the layers of unlearning and learning, goes deep, and quite frankly is a head f*ck.

I wrote this one today because I wanted it to be a reminder or even a first time acknowledgment for you Huns to ask yourself if you do question where your sources of knowledge are coming from? I so easily slip out of conscious habits and really wanted to write this so we all are continually sharing our experiences, our own unconscious biases and most importantly learning from each other.

lots of love,

Nish xx