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Op-Ed: Black Women Show the Way Forward in 2018
SAN DIEGO VOICE & VIEWPOINT — There is a reckoning afoot in this country. On one side, Trump has emboldened and embodied a virulent and reckless hate that targets women, Black people, and immigrants (among many others). Each day brings a new outrage. On the other side, #MeToo has followed #BlackLivesMatter as a hashtag-turned-movement, led by courageous truth-tellers who are sick and tired of a violent and largely ignored status quo.
By Monica Simpson (Executive Director, SisterSong)
There is a reckoning afoot in this country. On one side, Trump has emboldened and embodied a virulent and reckless hate that targets women, Black people, and immigrants (among many others). Each day brings a new outrage. On the other side, #MeToo has followed #BlackLivesMatter as a hashtag-turned-movement, led by courageous truth-tellers who are sick and tired of a violent and largely ignored status quo. The conversation about race and gender in this country has broken open, and now we must all contend with the truth of who we are as a nation.
While this may feel like scary and unfamiliar territory to some, in reality, the U.S. is just catching up to an understanding and analysis that Black women in this country have had for a long time. Black women have never had the luxury of ignorance—not to police violence, not to the rampant sexual harassment and assault that women experience at home, school, and work. In 2018, we should look to the work of Black women to see the path forward for a troubled and divided nation. In a way, Black women scholars and organizers have left breadcrumbs for us to follow to liberation, if we’ll only pay attention.
In 1989, legal scholar, Kimberly Crenshaw, coined the term “intersectionality” in her paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum to explain how Black women’s oppression on the basis of gender combined with oppression on the basis of race to create something altogether new, an experience of discrimination did not match what either white women or Black men experience. This concept would lay the groundwork for social justice organizing that now spans the globe, and provided a vocabulary for something Black women experience on a daily basis. While intersectionality risks dilution as an increasingly popular buzzword, the analysis it provides is a crucial tool to cut through the noise and understand the Trump administration’s policies and their impact on different communities.
Take for instance the recent Jane Doe case, and similar cases, of the Trump administration blocking young immigrant women from getting reproductive healthcare. The mistreatment of the “Janes” (as they’ve come to be called) at the hands of the Trump administration targets them both as women and as immigrants, and the two identities cannot be pulled apart. “Intersectionality” provides an analysis that explains why their treatment is so much more extreme, and its impact so severe.
Just five years after Crenshaw’s groundbreaking work, the reproductive justice movement was founded by Black women who, like Crenshaw, saw that their perspectives and experiences were being, once again, left out of the equation. Reproductive justice brought intersectionality and a global human rights framework together with a nuanced understanding of U.S. policies of reproductive coercion. The founding mothers of reproductive justice rejected White feminism’s focus on the birth control and the legality of abortion as too narrow, and described a vision for a world, where we can all prevent pregnancy if we want to, end a pregnancy if we need to, and have and raise children in healthy environments and without fear of violence.
Reproductive justice broadened the lens of abortion rights to include low-income women and women of color “and” broadened the entire conversation to recognize the ways in which U.S. policies denied motherhood to some women even while forcing it on others against their will.
This framework is crucial to connect the dots among Trump’s reproductive policies. Trump wants to make birth control unaffordable, push abortion out of reach, and punish women for having children. What seems inconsistent on the surface is, in fact, all part of one agenda to coerce and control a woman’s decisions about pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting.
When Trump was first elected, Black women were the least surprised. We saw Trump coming from a mile away and we already knew how deep this country’s anti-woman and anti-Black sentiment ran. Now, more than a year later, the work of Black women will help us understand and combat Trump’s agenda, with Black women leading the fight.
Let 2018 be the year of the Black woman.
Let 2018 be the year Black women’s brilliance, leadership, and analysis are heeded at last. Let 2018 mark the beginning of a new era of listening to, respecting, and trusting Black women. Just stop for a moment and imagine what might happen, if we actually made those words a reality.
The day after the Alabama Senate race, the hashtag #TrustBlackWomen was all over social media. And yes, we should trust Black women voters, because they’ve kept us from the brink many times. But Black women’s wisdom and contributions have so much more to teach us all—and we’re going to need to understand that if we hope to keep Trump from dragging us backward.
Like many other Black women across the country, I was standing up in my living room cheering and clapping my hands as I watched Oprah deliver her passionate speech at the Golden Globes. The next day the media went wild with hopes for and critiques of a theoretical run for president—but they missed the point. While the thought of it made me smile, what I saw was an invitation.
I saw an invitation for Black women to take every opportunity that we are given speak up and speak out for ourselves. I saw an invitation for Black Women to take up even more space. I saw an invitation for Black women to take the mic, to move to center stage and demand the attention and respect we have always deserved.
Monica Simpson is the executive director of SisterSong: The National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, based in Atlanta, Ga., and the director of the Trust Black Women Partnership. You can follow SisterSong on Twitter at @SisterSong_WOC.
This article originally appeared in the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint.
Featured
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Relive the action from the Yates vs. Madison gridiron clash on September 5, 2026. See the best moments from Houston high school football here.
Yates vs. Madison took place on Sept. 5, 2026. Photos from The Defender.
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Yates vs. Worthing (9-8-26) | Houston High School Volleyball
Catch the highlights from the intense volleyball showdown between Yates and Worthing. See all the action captured by The Defender.
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Featured
Black Veterans’ Fight for Equality…The Forgotten Cost of Service
Black veterans returned from serving a country that denied them equality. Discover the untold struggle for the benefits they earned in this week’s episode.
🇺🇸 They served America, then came home to segregation. Hear how Black veterans had to fight for the benefits they earned. Listen and learn more on this week’s episode of From the Desk of the Editor
#BlackVeterans #BlackHistory #FromTheDeskOfTheEditor #VoiceAndViewpoint
Black History
“Blue Tsunami” Sweeps Georgia, Bottoms Makes History
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE – THE MAROON TIGER — A political shift described as a “Blue Tsunami” has transformed the landscape of Georgia leadership following the recent election. Keisha Lance Bottoms made history when the race was called on Nov. 3, becoming the first woman and the first Black person elected as governor of Georgia.
The race was called on Nov. 3 at 9:24 p.m., which is much earlier than most elections. The atmosphere of the Marriott Marquis located in downtown Atlanta was only a mere sample of the excitement statewide. The event hall could barely hold the guests as the line for access passes extended across the entire lobby floor. Everyone came in some of their best attire, sporting unmistakable blue diamond pins with the words, “Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor.”
Now, Bottoms will become Georgia’s first woman and first Black governor when she takes office in January, making her the first Black woman to serve as governor of any U.S. state.
She described her campaign as reaching every corner of the state, “from the red hills of Georgia to the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Piedmont,” as cameras crowded in to capture the moment.
Joining her onstage were her mother, her children and her husband, Derek Bottoms, whom she met while attending Georgia State University College of Law and married in October 1994.
Supporters who had campaigned alongside Bottoms for 578 days shed tears of joy at her election watch party. Among those near the stage were U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock ‘91, D-Ga., the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant ‘94, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
Eight Black women, many firsts
In 2025, Black women experienced disproportionate employment losses as the Trump administration implemented federal workforce cuts and rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The losses disproportionately affected Black women across the country. In 2026, Georgia voters elected eight Black women to statewide office, marking a historic shift in the state’s political leadership. The South had something to say.
Georgia’s eight major statewide executive offices are the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner and state school superintendent.
When the newly elected officials take office in January, Black women will hold seven of Georgia’s eight statewide executive offices, a first for the state, with Lt. Gov.-elect Josh McLaurin holding the eighth seat.
Several broke barriers of their own. Tanya Miller will become Georgia’s first elected woman attorney general. Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County judge, will become the first Black person elected Georgia secretary of state. Keisha Sean Waites, a former Atlanta City Council member, will become Georgia’s first Black woman insurance commissioner. Educator Lydia Powell will become its first Black woman state school superintendent, while Nikki Porcher will become its first Black woman labor commissioner.
Agriculture Commissioner-elect Katherine Juhan-Arnold founded Baby Katie’s Pharm & Kitchen, a nonprofit farm that provides fresh produce and agricultural education to underserved communities. Shelia Edwards, who won the District 5 race, will join Alicia Johnson as one of only two Black women on the Georgia Public Service Commission. Johnson became the first Black woman elected to a statewide partisan office outside the judiciary in Georgia after winning her commission seat in 2025.
“Georgia chose competence,” Brown Reynolds told The 19th. “We were not selected because we were Black women. I believe that we were selected because all of us bring something that Georgia desperately needs.”
Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, told USA Today that the number of Black women elected to leadership positions in Georgia is unprecedented.
“Black women have definitely reached a point where they can not only run and be taken seriously for leadership positions in major parties,” she said.
The wins reached Congress too. State Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Ga, became the first Black woman with a doctorate in science elected to Congress, winning Georgia’s 13th Congressional District seat, while U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams won reelection.
“Georgia has shown up”
Warnock said Georgia voters showed the power of organizing this election cycle and pledged to keep fighting for historically Black colleges and universities.
“I’m proud of Georgia. Georgia has shown up,” Warnock said. “Some 3 million of them early voted.”
He said churches played a key role in that turnout.
“What we saw, among other things, in this election cycle is the power of organizing, and the faith community has always been an important part of that,” he said.
When asked about the legislative priorities he plans to pursue with Keisha Lance Bottoms, Warnock highlighted his efforts to secure federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities.
Warnock pointed to a recent $97.1 million federal award supporting STEM programs at 10 historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions, including Clark Atlanta University. His office has also reported securing more than $17 billion for HBCUs nationwide since he began his full Senate term.
With Governor-Elect Bottoms being an HBCU graduate of Florida A&M University, Georgia will have two HBCU alumni representing the people of the state.
“My own life is a testament to how these schools perform way above their weight,” he said. “And so I’ll continue to fight for them.”
His advice for current students was simple: “Morehouse gave me everything I needed to get ready,” he said. “I want the students to look at someone like me, and many others in various fields, and know that we sat in those same desks that they sit in. And so the sky is the limit.”
“Money doesn’t make you a success; character does”
Bryant said the win was personal, crediting Black men and Black churches for helping elect Bottoms.
“Super excited to know history was made, and to know that Black men supported a Black woman to get to this place,” he said.
The biggest hurdle, Bryant said, was getting Black churches involved and engaged, which he described as a return to the church’s tradition from the civil rights movement.
His advice for young men at Morehouse and across Georgia was direct.
“The takeaway lesson for all of us is money doesn’t make you a success,” Bryant said. “Character does.”
When the officials-elect take office in January, Black women will lead nearly every corner of Georgia’s executive branch. Bottoms announced her transition team Friday, Nov. 6. She and the seven other statewide officials-elect will be sworn in in January.
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Based on reporting by Morehouse College – The Maroon Tiger.
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