fyi, it’s not black women’s job to save your ass

This past Tuesday, Alabama would have elected an alleged child molester and twice removed white supremacist judge were it not for Black people, and particularly Black women.

According to exit polls, 93% of Black men and 98% of Black women voted for Democrat Doug Jones over the scandal-plagued nincompoop Republican Roy Moore in the race for Senate, effectively putting him over the edge against the tide of white men and women who voted for Moore.

In response to these efforts, many took to the internet to thank Black women for “saving” the state, the party, and the country. It’s no denying that if Moore was elected to office as was expected were not for his scandals, the political left would have been in much worse shape. Still, one can hardly imagine that Jones, who ran a racist ad himself during the campaign, will do much to repay Black women, some of whom live in the state in poverty conditions UN officials called unheard of in this country, will repay them for their troubles.

As the blog Write Some Shit put it, “Black people, particularly Black women, do not exist to save White America from itself. Black people, particularly Black women, were not placed on this earth to rescue White people from themselves. To save yourself, you must take a long hard look in the mirror and put in the work.”

Don’t thank Black women for saving you or your party without showing up for them in material ways. Don’t assign them superhuman saviorhood just so you can justify not paying attention to the moments when they need to be human. And don’t only recognize the power of Black women when they are doing something for your political party.