In August 2023, author and racial strategist Yanique Redwood launched her first e book, White Ladies Cry and Name Me Indignant: A Black Girl’s Memoir on Racism in Philanthropy. The e book is about her personal expertise with racism at work, advised via a set of 18 essays.
When Redwood launched White Ladies Cry, she had no thought what the general public response can be or if it will resonate with others. Sadly, Redwood would quickly uncover that her expertise with racism isn’t distinctive. Many Black girls throughout the nation resonate with the tales advised within the pages of her e book.
As somebody deeply invested in significant work that results in change, Redwood’s aim for writing the e book was easy: she needed different Black girls to really feel seen and know they weren’t alone.
On this interview with NPQ, Redwood talks in regards to the responses obtained within the months following the discharge of White Ladies Cry, the bodily and emotional toll of coping with racism, and the way Black girls are constructing group and supporting one another.
Rebekah Barber: What has the response been like because the publication of your e book?
Yanique Redwood: It was launched final August—August fifteenth—and I hosted two conversations earlier than it was truly launched on the earth.
“I knew, however I didn’t know, that there was a lot ache taking place as individuals are attempting to do their work and…for a lot of of them, attempting to do work on behalf of our individuals, on behalf of Black individuals.”
A part of what I used to be doing with these two [conversations] was attempting to check to see if the e book resonated—as a result of I didn’t know if it will. It was my story. I had a hunch that there have been Black girls who had skilled a few of what I’d skilled, however I simply didn’t know if it will resonate. I felt like possibly the language was going to be too “smooth.” I’ve that in quotes as a result of it’s very emotional.
These two conversations [before the book’s release] had been positively telling of what I might anticipate when the e book was launched. So many individuals—girls, Black girls, particularly, saying issues like, “This e book…it’s such as you’ve written my life.” “This e book is a mirror.” “This e book has helped me to really feel like I’m not loopy.” “I’m in a job, and I’ve by no means felt so demoralized or made to really feel so insufficient till I learn your e book.” Different individuals take a look at me and my profession and say, “She has accomplished so many issues. She has accomplished it with a lot grace and enthusiasm but nonetheless experiences this stage of hurt and emotional and psychological well being impacts on account of the experiences.”
It’s been deeply resonant. Each e book discuss, there may be not less than one Black girl who comes as much as me whereas I’m signing her e book and is speaking via a narrative that’s deeply painful. It has been an unbelievable response. I knew, however I didn’t know, that there was a lot ache taking place as individuals are attempting to do their work…and for a lot of of them, attempting to do work on behalf of our individuals, on behalf of Black individuals.
RB: Your background is in public well being. Are you able to discuss how that has knowledgeable your work, particularly as you had been writing the e book and interested by how these points may affect the well being of Black girls?
YR: My background is deeply embedded on this e book and on this work. My public well being coaching was positively rooted in an understanding of racism and different types of oppression, rooted in community-based participatory analysis in order that people who find themselves most harmed, most marginalized must be in positions of energy and have company over their lives and selections.
Within the e book, you see a few of my journey academically—incorporating anti-racism and group participation in my work. I believe the massive a part of my public well being coaching that reveals up because the central theme within the e book is about weathering.
The time period was coined by Dr. Arlene Geronimus, who was considered one of my mentors and professors after I was in grad college in my public well being program. For a very long time, the methods wherein that analysis unfolded was actually about a few issues: Black girls, particularly Black girls who’re poor, and the way their our bodies get weathered due to all the intersections of all the problems that they’re going through—and in addition Black middle-class girls exhibiting that class truly doesn’t shield us such as you suppose it will as a result of racism is so virulent.
I began to expertise this hurt within the philanthropic sector, and I began to grasp how my physique was being implicated. I used to be beginning to take time without work work as a result of I used to be so, so fatigued and exhausted, and after I was writing, I actually needed the reader to expertise that as a lot as doable. I discuss so much in regards to the physique. I attempt to make the e book very, very visceral so that folks can really feel, in some small manner, what I used to be feeling and what Black girls are sometimes feeling.
I’ve heard from so many individuals how that occurred. I hate that it occurred. I don’t need anybody to be in that ache, however I’m glad that I used to be profitable in articulating how the physique will get implicated when individuals are simply present process stress after racism-related stress and doing every little thing that they’ll to attempt to negotiate. It’s not like we’re not attempting to barter—attempting to say the appropriate issues, attempting to behave the appropriate manner. That’s how I discuss in regards to the physique via this type of weathering speculation.
RB: In current months, extra Black girls have began sharing their experiences with racism. One Black girl, Antoinette Candia-Bailey, dedicated suicide after experiencing racism and wrote about these experiences earlier than her dying. Do you suppose that the truth that so many Black girls are starting to inform their tales will result in any substantial change?
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“My sole objective for this e book is for Black girls and different girls of coloration to see their experiences on the web page, to be witnessed, in order that they know that nothing is unsuitable with them.”
YR: I needed to wrestle with this with my very own story. I’m a change agent at coronary heart, so I need to be sure that [the] issues that I do on the earth result in change. However there was a degree within the writing that I made a decision that this e book wouldn’t be—possibly any person else’s e book or possibly one other e book I write—however this specific e book wouldn’t be about attempting to alter techniques, attempting to alter White individuals, attempting to alter White girls, attempting to alter racism.
None of that’s the reason for this e book. My sole objective for this e book is for Black girls and different girls of coloration to see their experiences on the web page, to be witnessed, in order that they know that nothing is unsuitable with them. If there’s any change I’m on the lookout for, it’s that. Individuals have requested me about what I would like White girls to suppose or what I would like the sector to do, however I simply don’t have that reply as a result of I attempted to take the White gaze out of the equation.
RB: Is there anything I ought to know in regards to the response you’ve gotten since your e book was launched?
YR: Nothing extra in regards to the e book. I did need to share some knowledge I compiled lately.
After Dr. Claudine Homosexual resigned as the primary Black president of Harvard College, I used to be so shaken up by that. I puzzled if there have been different Black girls who had been experiencing this—being compelled to resign, being fired underneath circumstances which have some sort of racial implication.
I needed to know, and I knew it wouldn’t be good, however inside about 10 days of posting on social media, I had gotten nearly 100 names. I now have 135—115 who self-identified and about 20 the place another person recognized an individual who was experiencing what I used to be speaking about. Most people who reached out to me had been both C-suite or on the director stage. Many of those girls are additional alongside of their careers and nonetheless expertise a questioning of their talents. A lot of the hurt that they named was coming from White girls, White males, or White boards.
That’s essential as a result of, at each e book discuss, somebody asks in regards to the hurt that Black girls trigger to one another. I acknowledge that that could be a factor, however I at all times say that I don’t need to shift the dialog to speak about that. That’s not what this e book is about. Many individuals title that a lot of the hurt was coming from White individuals.
Additionally they named the bodily and emotional affect. Some individuals talked about blood stress issues, breaking out in hives, having panic assaults, being unable to sleep, or having nightmares. It was unbelievable to examine individuals having the basic psychological well being signs—weight acquire or weight reduction, incapacity to sleep, melancholy, anxiousness, or suicide ideation.
“I would like Black girls to thrive. I’m attempting to determine what are the ways in which we will thrive.”
RB: It’s fascinating to listen to that even Black girls at excessive ranges of management expertise pronounced ranges of hurt. Are you discovering that this deters youthful Black girls from in search of higher-level positions?
YR: I’ve been wrestling with this as a result of I do know that that may be the implication of this e book. I don’t know easy methods to reply that. We miss out on profession prospects.
These organizations don’t take pleasure in our views, and I imagine in our views.
I actually don’t need to say that. At the exact same time, I would like Black girls to thrive. I’m attempting to determine what are the ways in which we will thrive. I believe there’s one thing there about group—being in deep, sustaining relationships and group with different Black girls, particularly as we’re in these management roles.
RB: Are you able to discuss the way you and different Black girls present up and help one another on this second?
YR: I’m attempting to experiment with what could possibly be useful. One little factor that I’m doing is a workshop on pleasure. I felt like tapping into what pleases me was my path to getting higher, so I’m wondering if that’s a path for different girls. I’m internet hosting a retreat in Jamaica, the place I’m from, to see if individuals, after they come collectively in group to follow somatic follow and pleasure practices, if that could possibly be therapeutic.
I’m additionally experimenting with a extra intense help group. We lately met to begin planning, working with a psychological well being clinician and a somatic practitioner to do a extra intense cohort-based help group for Black girls and different girls of coloration who’re actively experiencing misery. I do know others are doing issues in order that we will begin to study from one another about what is required, to look after, to like, to guard Black girls.