Book Review #01: “All the Black Girls Are Activists”
All The Black Girls Are Activists is about professor and writer EbonyJanice’s personal journey of healing and self-love. Her story holds up a mirror to all Black women navigating misogynoir. With her collection of essays, she blew me away with this beautiful continuation of Womanist theory.
EbonyJanice provides a theoretical foundation to womanism that all of her essays are centered around. What I love most about the collection is they embody its title. Not only does EbonyJanice talk about her own stories, but she also brings in the wisdom that she has learned from Black women through her life.
An essay that fascinated me, “In Pursuit of Loudness”, deals with the harmful stereotypes surrounding Black womanhood. She writes about her cousin, Latresha, and how her “loudness” was an expression of Black girlhood:
“The reality is that Black girlhood, on its highest decibel, no matter how loud or how muted it is, will always still be on the outside of mainstream’s acceptable way of being. This places Black girlhood in contrast to the basic concept of girlhood in general”.
Although EbonyJanice talks about the harm of stereotypes, there are points in her essays where she seems to fall into that trap herself. She writes about how many Black children grew up seeing white children get away with certain behaviors in public since white parents “believed in private chastisement” . I understand she is speaking in generalities, but I cannot help to think of my own family dynamics as a Black household, where we followed the “private chastisement” rule.
All The Black Girls Are Activists is attuned to the experiences of Black womanhood, and it has an eye on the denigrating forces of misogynoir. Through those forces, a framework of living is exposed and termed as Womanism. This collection of essays attests to the brilliance, beauty and resilience of Black women.
