All the Black Girls are Activists by EbonyJanice Moore is the womanist declaration I have been waiting on to pull all the pieces together. We hear from Black women like Tricia Hersey talking about rest being resistance and our birthright. We hear from Black women like Rachel Cargle talking about having the space to reimagine our world and our lives. We hear from Black women like Toni Morrison, who tell us our stories matter outside of the white gaze. EbonyJanice is walking to Canada and taking us and a bunch of other slaves with her. And it wouldn’t be the first time.
This references a quote by Alice Walker: “‘Mama, I’m walking to Canada and I’m taking you and a bunch of other slaves with me.’ ‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’”
Through Dreaming, Loudness, Softness, Body, Unsashamedness, Wellness, Name, Madness, Ancestors, and Authority, EbonyJanice weaves together the tapestry from all of these threads of gold (in the spirit of citing Black women, that metaphor was from Catherine Joy White) left to us by Black women scholars of today and in the past. This is the ethic that justifies that the mere manifestation of Black women thriving is activism.
EbonyJanice’s use of the womanist framework illustrates her commitment to anyone who identifies with Black girlhood. Personally, womanism never stuck with me (especially since I have always known Alice Walker to be the originator and given her views on trans women, I didn’t feel comfortable adopting it as being inclusive), but I have always embodied its tenents, especially in the ways EbonyJanice applies the context of the fourth way to Black girls being activists.
All the Black Girls Are Activists is for anyone, but primarily Black women, looking to radicalize themselves in the most sustainable ways. I mean radical in the sense that it teaches us to question, unlearn, and reimagine new ways of being activists.
