Community was the infrastructure

Community did not arrive fully formed. It was built through comments, DMs, late-night messages, shared language, and mutual recognition. This page holds the ways Black girls, women, and femmes found one another and made the internet livable together.

“I Stayed”I stayed. Even when the room went quiet when I entered. Even when the algorithm didn’t favor my truth. I stayed visible—because disappearing was never an option.As a Black woman, showing up online is a radical act. A sacred offering. I am not here to perform. I am here to remember. Who I am. Whose I am. I carry the prayers of grandmothers who couldn’t post, tweet, or go live— but still birthed brilliance. I walk as a living altar for my Black son— so he knows that love, justice, and joy are his birthright.The digital space wasn’t built for us— but I showed up anyway. Because we are the architects. We build sanctuaries in captions. We turn comments into communion. We take hashtags and make them healing.I showed up in love—raw, real, soft. I showed up in rest. I showed up in rage. I showed up in resistance. And in that, I created community.To the girl I used to be: Don’t shrink to fit this feed. Don’t quiet your fire to be liked. Your voice will echo— into inboxes, into hearts, into change. You are already enough.And to my heart, I leave this note: Beloved… Thank you. For staying soft in a world that tried to harden you. For choosing joy again and again. For building a world your son can thrive in. Your presence is power. Your joy is a testimony. Your love is holy.Keep going. You’re doing sacred work. #FaithOverFear #BlackJoyForever

“Community looked like people showing up without being asked. Defending, affirming, checking in. Not because the platform told them to, but because we recognized each other.”

Anonymous

“Community wasn’t always loud or organized. Sometimes it looked like a reply, a repost, a quiet message at the right time.Small things that reminded me I wasn’t imagining what I was feeling.That kind of care held more than people realize.”

“Something I would tell my younger self about staying and loving myself and finding my voice online it’s just that similar to when you interact with people in real life; some are gonna love you some are gonna hate you. Others just will not care. So, to let any of that dictate how you move what you say will only hold you back. and honestly, that’s still a message that I tell myself every day.”

Anonymous

“Honestly, community. The people I met and how they made me feel. How I am able to make my fellow Black women feel seen and represented. Even if the space isn’t built for us, we still have to find commonality where we are planted. It reminds me of my experience going to a PWI. It’s not built for us, but we in here, planted firmly at the Black table or in the BSU lounge. Yes, this place isn’t built for us, but we stick together and remain strong.”

Rowana Abbensetts-Dobson