black woman or

[Sistermadly]

The late (great) poet Essex Hemphill, when asked whether he was black first or gay first answered a similar question this way:

(Pardon the graphic nature of the comment)

"It's like separating my left n*t from my right."

So to me, asking me whether I am a woman first or African American first is asking me to divide myself in half to better please others, rather than drawing from all of the experiences I've lived as an African American woman in the West. I can't divorce my gender from my ethnicity, nor should I have to/be asked to.