In her op-ed (New York Times, January 28, 2018), writer Morgan Jerkins recalls an encounter when she had to explain why she calls herself a “black woman” not just “woman.” “If a white person asks a black woman why she cannot just be a human, he or she is asking, Why can’t you be like me? Why can’t you participate in the fiction that there is such a thing as being ‘human,’ and that race and gender combined negate the former label? The problem with this seemingly harmless question is that such an interrogation demonstrates how white people can understand or digest people of color only through their own criteria.” To read her complete essay, click here.
