We Stayed

“Being an opinionated, confident, and well-studied Black woman online is very hard. The opposition is endless, and on occasion, people engage your content with the sole purpose of being a contrarian or seeking to humble you. For me, showing up online, speaking my truth and THE truth, is an act of resistance, but also an act of service to the people...My goal is to cut through the noise, the perfect aesthetics, and the perfectly curated conversations, so that we can get down to the real issues that are relevant to Black women, the Black community, and society as a whole. I show up as who I am, and I think that’s important.”

Carmen jones

“What does it mean to me to stay visible online even when it was easy? Well, social media isn’t just for kicks and giggles for some. For some, it’s a method to [an end] for business. There have been several times [when] I may have been dealing with things personally that jeopardized my creativity. But GOD. Everyone I’ve wanted to stop, GOD sends me reinforcements. Whether it’s someone saying I’ve inspired them, [or] someone asking me to speak at an event. If I didn’t stay visible, I wouldn’t be walking in my purpose.”

Mo Clark

“I would say there are two things that really have kept me showing up and staying visible in the digital space and these are: First, just the connection I’ve made with other black women who are appreciative of me making myself visible, or vulnerable or just authenticity being myself. I take so much inspiration from the world around me and in the digital sphere and I hope that I can provide that same type of inspiration for others. When people connect with what you have to say or how you are showing up, its a really nice feeling.Secondly, was that I really try not to take myself too seriously. I always try to have fun and share the things I want to share and keep private the things I don’t want to share. Having these boundaries has allowed me to be as free as I want. And if there’s ever an issue, controversy, or disagreement, I pull right from Queen Bey’s handbook and address it in my art.”

Sabine Quetant

“Whenever anyone asks why I must make things political, I must remind them that the very existence of my Black, smiling face next to an opinion, about anything at all, is considered political. Controversial. Something to be automatically rejected and challenged at Pavlovian speeds. If my stance is that powerful, then it must be important. So as long as I’m here, I might as well say it.”

Leslie Gray Streeter

Staying visible online meant showing up. At times, for real, my digital presence was the only thing I was excited about. Ideas for content and connection would come to me in the middle of the night, and I would wake up excited. But excitement doesn't mean easy. The time it took to record, edit, and create, the stress of still doing my "real job" while trying to post, and the disconnect it would often leave me with from the people in my own home. Staying visible online got the ideas out of me, and that felt liberating! I wanted folks to feel what I had in hopes of moving and inspiring them.”

Ashley Gaddy Robbins, Ph.D.

"I’ve been on the internet since I was a child. I’ve seen people disparage Black women for simply existing. I’ve seen Black woman creators on TikTok get less just because they’re Black. As a Black person on TikTok, I’ve often said to myself “I deserve more likes” or “I deserve more followers”. I put so much into my videos. I often feel like I’m screaming into the void where a couple of thankfully loyal people hear me. I know I’ll reach the summit of social media success, I just hate that because I’m Black, it’s taking me 5 times as long with 10 times the effort."

Chiugo Akujuobi | Mx.Chiugo

“I am involved in race equality work and deliver sessions online and face to face. During the riots last year, I was due to facilitate a pre-planned online session. I was emotional, exhausted and fed up but I showed up… It almost removed the elephant in the room and helped not only me but other’s feel validated in our emotions before continuing with the training.”

Yasmin

“Staying visible online, even when it wasn’t easy, meant choosing not to disappear… Visibility became a way to honour myself and others like me, to carve space in digital landscapes not designed for our softness, rage, magic or truth… I stayed because somewhere in the scroll, there were soft moments… Messages that said, “Me too,” or “I see you.”

Zindziswa V

We stayed through versions of ourselves that we’ve since outgrown.Through moments we would never return to.And still, there’s something honest about the factthat we didn’t disappear from it.

Anonymous

We Stayed

Staying was not always ease or joy. Sometimes it was refusal. Sometimes devotion. Sometimes the only way to remain visible to ourselves. This page holds what it meant to stay online anyway, even when the space was not built for us, even when leaving might have been easier.