We are not going back

In the hazy and disappointing afterburn of the election, there has been a surprisingly wonderful collective response from Black women: a resolute commitment to embrace more rest and self-care.

We have decided to send our capes to the cleaners, turn the deadbolts on our front doors, put our feet up, and take care of our own concerns.

All the Black Girl Magic that has been expended over the years trying to save humanity from itself is exhausting business, so we’re leaving society to fend for itself for a change. The only safe space we have is the one we create for ourselves.

Our rest is now our resistance.

The election was a numbers game, pure and simple. The statistics speak for themselves. Black women voted definitively for the outcome we wanted to see. Every recap poll I have managed to find has shown that Black women supported Kamala Harris by roughly 89% or more. No one understands more than us the ramifications of doing otherwise, especially when the other side has already shown us their disregard for morality, scientific fact, and basic human decency.

But those who organized and mobilized for the other team cared nothing for those matters. The bros and their women were energized. No matter how many reporters pointed out Donald Trump’s blatant mistruths, fabrications, and felony convictions, their motivating factor was only to win. To defeat. To plant a flag on top of a hill and commandeer everything in sight. Domination without cooperation.

So rather than jumping into a frustrating pool of I-told-you-sos when some of this “master” plan takes shape, Black women are opting out.

The only safe space we have is the one we create for ourselves.

We are taking our make-a-way-out-of-no-way skills and training and putting them to work elsewhere.

Planning another set of pink knit hat marches? Count us out. We tried, but you wouldn’t listen.

Creating a plethora of online petitions in protest over the forthcoming decimation of the public education system? Sorry, not interested. It’s been less than a century since you let the Southern states run willy-nilly with Jim Crow laws, trying to keep us out of your schools, stores, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Only a short time beyond that, it was illegal for us to learn to read at all. We’ve seen this movie before, and a few of its sequels.

All the hubbub over critical race theory, perhaps? Threatening to withhold public funding from schools with Black, ethnic, women’s, or gender studies programs? Ending Affirmative Action and race-based admissions? In the words of a popular film: You can’t handle the truth. Nor can you allow yourself to believe that what Black people want most out of this country — and you — is to be left alone. To just be.

» READ MORE: What Black America learned from the reelection of Donald Trump | Opinion

Black women have been reconciling the injustices and holding folks accountable since time immemorial.

Since our babies were snatched out of our arms and sold down the river or across the ocean. Since being forced to nurse and nurture the children of those who owned and oppressed us. Since our fathers and husbands were snatched from our homes and strung up in trees. Since being penalized for being poor, when there is documented history of prejudicial treatment and unjust laws designed to keep us that way — created for anyone but us to win.

Please don’t be offended that we are now choosing stillness and peace. Let someone else take our place on the front lines for a change. Find someone new to lay prostrate on the sacrificial altar and take one for the team.

Since you choose not to work with us, take your shot at succeeding without us.

Our rest is now our resistance. We’ll be off to the side, minding our own business.

Stephanie Renée is the CEO and VibeMistress of the nonprofit arts education foundation Soul Sanctuary (soul-sanctuary.net), a voice actor, and a freelance creative. She and her Frenchie named Mojo reside in Upper Roxborough.