The first two Ethiopian girls I ever knew—both students at the elementary school I attended from grades 1 to 3—were, on a surface level at least, my cultural doppelgängers. They both had brown complexions and, like me, their curls hung down their backs one day, and tight braids the next day. But that was the extent of our similarities. Their otherness didn’t waft off of them like the scent of exhaust fumes the way it did for me, the only black Muslim Somali girl at school. Their obvious Christian faith like all of the white kids, the multi-colored beads they wore in their hair like all the black female celebrities I idolized, and the fact that their moms dressed way less conservatively than my mom were dead giveaways that they were Western, and thus nothing like me despite our shared geography, and phenotype.
as a ugandan who's been folded into the ambiguous "east african girl" i really identify with the beginning of this post and your comment on how commodifying identity is uniquely milennial. i'm a bit confused about the concluding paragraph tho. from what i understand, you're saying your audience is very broad and then you list a wide range of women with different backgrounds. in my own experience, i also feel a lot of erasure in spaces that are "for women" bc i have still experience oppression on a near daily basis by some women (particularly white and weallthy ones). i'm wondering how you see the broad "east african" brush as different from the broad "women" brush
love ya. 💙
as a ugandan who's been folded into the ambiguous "east african girl" i really identify with the beginning of this post and your comment on how commodifying identity is uniquely milennial. i'm a bit confused about the concluding paragraph tho. from what i understand, you're saying your audience is very broad and then you list a wide range of women with different backgrounds. in my own experience, i also feel a lot of erasure in spaces that are "for women" bc i have still experience oppression on a near daily basis by some women (particularly white and weallthy ones). i'm wondering how you see the broad "east african" brush as different from the broad "women" brush