Shonda Rhimes, Disney, & Why Black Women Will Never Have “Enough”
Recently, Shonda Rhimes requested additional All-Access passes to Disney World for her family. Disney is a part of the ABC Network Family. The same ABC that has benefitted from Shonda’s storytelling genius and houses several of her shows.
An executive at the theme park responded to her request with “Don’t you have enough”?
Don’t you have enough?
The ongoing statement that Black women hear in all aspects of their lives when we request our due
Don’t we have enough?
When we insist that gender-based movements must incorporate how gender-based discrimination and violence shows up differently for Black Women
We are asked
Isn’t it enough to focus on our shared oppression of gender?
When we point out that how we navigate the world in Black skin is impacted by our gender and adds its own dangers including
The minimization of police brutality on us
The insistence that we not hold those accountable for harming us if they look like us
The dismissal of the murdering of our Trans-sisters
We are asked
Isn’t it enough to talk about Black Lives and not let your gender “separate us?”
When we point out that we are expected to work harder, longer, and for less pay than our white counterparts of any gender
And are weighed down under the pressure of knowing that we are expected to represent “All” of us
We are asked
Isn’t it enough that you are in the room?
When we tell those in our lives that we will not settle for Struggle Love, but want those who support us, stimulate our minds, and value Black Women
We are asked
Isn’t it enough to have ….someone?
In times when we say that we are tired, that we need spaces to be vulnerable that are filled with other Black Women who understand our unique intersectional struggle
We are asked
Isn’t your Black Girl Magic…enough?
The world views us as those who carry its burdens, because as Zora summarized “The Black woman is the mule of the world.”
Who can be counted on to consider the needs of all others (sometimes to the detriments of ourselves) because as Anna Julia Cooper stated ““when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.”
And we know that her sentiment goes even beyond Black people
The world depends on Black women
So, when we begin to expect more
When we begin to realize we deserve more
The world pushes back
It insists that we need to remain in the place that is comfortable for it
We are gaslighted with the language of “You have enough”
When we have proven ourselves worthy of so much more
And just like Shonda Rhimes demonstrated in her “taking her talents to Netflix”,
We as Black women must never believe it is enough
Because the world owes a debt to us that it can never fully pay
#ShondaRhimes #Netflix #BlackWomen #ZoraNealeHurston #AnnaJuliaCooper #CenteringSisters
Dr. Dent is a licensed psychologist. Her hardest job is being a Black Woman who centers the experiences of Black women and girls. Daily, she reminds herself that, although she is “Enough”, the world has not given her “enough”.