"I'm Speaking"

Two weeks ago we witnessed the only Vice Presidential Debate of this election. Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris participated in the debate that was moderated by Susan Page. Following the debate I saw many women sharing memes and graphics of "I'm speaking" quoting Senator Harris. I think that many of us saw ourselves in the Senator, relating to the feeling of being interrupted. But white women, we have to talk about this. Were the constant interruptions infuriating? YES! Did the Senator get disrespected? Absolutely! But what did the white woman in this situation (Susan Page) do? Not enough. My hope is that white women will join me in seeing ourselves not in Senator Harris, but in Susan Rice.

How are we enabling and allowing this sort of disrespectful, harmful behavior in the spaces that we're responsible for? You see, we don't have solidarity with Senator Harris when we don't show Senator Harris solidarity -- when we don't use our platform to hold other white folks -- especially cis white men like VP Pence! -- accountable for their behavior, we fail to be in solidarity with women of color. I believe that we're inclined to see ourselves in Senator Harris because it's easier to do that than to see how we enable these types of dynamics in many situations and contexts, leaving the women of color around us to have to stand up for themselves. It's time for us to reflect on how we're all Susan Page, not Senator Harris, and what we can do differently moving forward. "I'm speaking" is not ours. It belongs to the many women of color who sit in seats like Senator Harris where white folks, regardless of gender, contribute to the role they're forced into.