Did you code switch today?
Volume 1, No. 21
I have been working on having one voice. Black people in America have had to code switch just to stay alive. We still carry that burden in our DNA. It's the practice of shifting the way we express ourselves depending on the social or cultural context—whether in professional settings, social gatherings, or even within our own families.
Historically, this practice has roots in the African American experience, evolving as a response to systemic barriers and cultural exclusion. It's a testament to our adaptability, resilience, and the dual consciousness that W.E.B. Du Bois famously described. We shouldn’t have to have a dual consciousness. Code switching increases the pressure to perform and conform which contributes to higher levels of stress and anxiety. The fear of being misunderstood or judged, or the constant vigilance to avoid making mistakes in unfamiliar cultural settings, can be overwhelming. I have been looking at the physical ways code switching effects me. I am working on reducing stress.
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
"More people's lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people's lives have been shaped by silence than we think."
— Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake
HONORING HERSTORIES
Patricia Hill Collins (1948- ) is an American academic specializing in race, class, and gender. She is a distinguished university professor of sociology emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was the head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and a past president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Collins served in 2009 as the 100th president of the ASA – the first African-American woman to hold this position.Dr. Hill Collins had to fight to get her voice back. Know that it is possible.
Beginning in adolescence, I was increasingly the “first,” “one of the few,” or the “only” African American and/or woman and/or working class person in my schools, communities, and work settings. I saw nothing wrong with being who I was, but apparently many others did. My world grew larger, but I felt I was growing smaller. I tried to disappear into myself in order to deflect the painful, daily assaults designed to teach me that being an African American, working-class woman made me lesser than those who were not. And as I felt smaller, I become quieter and eventually was virtually silenced (Collins, 1990, p. xi).
"Very often what happens is groups on the bottom are told, ‘Well, you're too stupid’ or ‘You can't read,’ or ‘You don't have time,’ or ‘You have no creativity, why would we listen to you?’ When it's actually the reverse. When people claim their own narratives, their own discussions, their own music, their own dance, their own philosophy, then that is a rock that cannot be taken away. So my work on Black women lays the foundation for everything I've done since. And in that foundation is the idea of intersectionality – that systems of power intersect in the lives of Black women and in everyone's lives. Not just the life of the individual, but the collective life, the social structures that we are in."
— Patricia Hill Collins, Time magazine, October 25, 2023.
NUGGET OF THE WEEK
From time to time, I will be sharing nuggets that stopped me in my tracks during my reading during the week.
“The most common reason you leave a peak too soon is arrogance, masquerading as confidence.
The most common reason you stay in a valley too long is fear. Masquerading as comfort.”
Until next time.....remember use your voice and document your stories because they matter!
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