Book Review - Loud Black Girls Edited By Yomi Adegoke And Elizabeth Uviebinené

To say that Black women have had a bit of a rough time of it would be a massive understatement. Throughout western history in general Black women’s voices have been silenced and ignored. Even when social movements have emerged for women in the past Black women have often been given the cold shoulder. When Emmeline Pankhurst was campaigning for Women’s suffrage, she wasn’t exactly campaigning for all women to get the vote, but rather a very specific unmelanated group of women. While women’s suffrage is recognised by many to have been achieved in 1918 that was only for women over 30 who owned property. Working class women, including the majority of women of colour, had to wait another 10 years before they received electoral parity with men with the passing of the representation of the people act in 1928.

It might seem odd to open this review with an incredibly brief look at women’s suffrage, but the point is Black women have had an uphill struggle. In order to get a seat at the table and in order to be heard, Black women have had to get loud. ‘Loud Black Girls: 20 Black Women Writers Ask What’s Next’ is an anthology of essays from twenty Black British women. These writers look at what it means to them to be a Black woman in modern Britain. As could be expected given that they all have different experiences and perspectives no two essays are alike. They cover an eclectic mix of topics from the importance of a proper understanding of personal finances, to the way Meghan Markle brought increased visibility to mixed-race women. This is most definitely an anthology written by loud Black girls for loud Black girls, and as a quiet white boy I’m about as far as you can get from the intended demographic as possible. Having said that this book still lets me see some of the many challenges Black women have to deal with, and how they can support and build each other up to overcome them.

Calling Black women loud is quite a loaded term, one which carries many connotations both good and bad. The book opens with a quote that does such a good job of encapsulating its purpose that I’m just going to include it directly: “Black women will always be too loud for a world that never intended on listening to them.” To some the word loud is a negative, to them loud is a synonym for disruptive, troublesome, or difficult. To people like this, loud Black girls are a problem that needs to be dealt with. As the saying goes the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, and loud women like this stick out in a major way. I however look at the word ‘loud’ as a positive; meaning these women are confident, that they are self-assured, they know their worth and they’re not afraid to make sure others know too. In that respect everything about this book from the bright colours on its cover which ensures it’ll stand out in a pile of books, to the content itself screams loud in the best way possible. I’ve read anthologies like this before and most will just include one essay after another and they might include a section in the back giving more detail on each contributor, but not this one. Loud Black Girls dedicates a page introducing each writer before their essay writing about the contributor and detailing their accomplishments. It’s as if the editors are saying to the reader we know how great the writers we chose are, and we’re going to make sure you know it too. The whole book is a celebration of, and showcase for, Black women. It is Black women lifting other Black women up and amplifying their voices so they can’t be ignored.

In the past when I have read or reviewed anthologies like this one, I’ve tried to find and focus on themes and throughlines that reoccur throughout the book. This time I’ve found that difficult because of how wildly different in subject and tone each essay is. As I said above, no two contributors are alike, and no two essays are alike. To give an idea of how much variety is present here I’ll say there was an essay that focused on the writer’s difficult relationship with Caribbean food, one that focused on the writers experiences emigrating to Nigeria, one focuses on how we need to completely reform our criminal justice system from the ground up to end the criminalisation of Black youth, one focused on how they were trying to raise their Black daughter to be strong and independent, and one looked at the lack of representation for Black women in mainstream media and the stereotypical roles they are often forced into when they do appear. These are but a few examples, as the title of the book says there are twenty essays in total. It would be easy to criticise this book as lacking focus because of how different each essay is but reading it I found this isn’t the case. The difference itself is the focus of the book. The sheer variety of subjects covered is the point of this anthology, to show that Black women cannot be reduced to a monolith, and that they contain multitudes as all people do.

While for obvious reasons I can’t go into detail on each of the twenty essays included, I can focus on one which resonated with me in particular. As a nerd and comics fan, Elizabeth Fapuro’s essay “The ‘Shuri’ Effect: The Age of #Blackexcellence, the Falsehood of Black Mediocrity and the Absence of the Black Middle” drew my attention based on the title alone. What I found upon reading was an essay about the negative effects that striving for #Blackexcellence can have on Black women, or Black people in general who can’t hit the impossibly high standards expected of them. She writes about how in contrast, white people are allowed to just be average, or even mediocre, and how society doesn’t expect excellence from us the way it does from Black people. It’s a deconstruction of the talk parents often have with Black children about how they need to do twice as well to get half as far, so they need to be the best in order to have any modicum of success. Fapuro eschews that line of thinking and asks why can’t there be a Black middle? A space where Black people in general, and women more specifically can just exist and live a successful life with respect from others without having to be superhuman. In essence she asks why does it have to be Black girl magic? Why isn’t it enough to just be average? I don’t have the answer to this question, but I do know this essay made me consider the other side of the #Blackexcellence coin in a way I hadn’t before. For every Serena Williams, or Simone Biles out there there’s far more Black women who are just getting through the day in a world which seems hostile to their very existence. It is in keeping with the ethos of this book of uplifting and supporting Black women that this essay says they should be remembered too. As Fapuro puts it: “Mainstream society often forgets us. Let’s not forget each other.”

That feels like a good note to conclude this piece on. This is a book that celebrates all Black women, gives them space to be loud without judgement or reprimand, and refuses to let any be forgotten. It should be read by as many people as possible. Yes, Black women will almost certainly get more out of it than other demographics, but there’s a lot in here for the rest of us to dig into as well. While it is incredibly culturally specific, a lot of topics these essays explore are universal in scope, and anyone can relate to them. Everyone wants to be seen, everyone wants to be heard, everyone wants to be acknowledged, everyone wants their kids to grow up in a better world than they did, and everyone needs to get their finances in order. This is one for Black women, but it isn’t only one for Black women. Within the pages of this book there is joy and pain in equal measure, and a demand for our society to do better by Black women who metaphorically have had the weight of the world put on their shoulders for far too long. As the book’s subtitle says the contributors are asking what’s next? It probably won’t be a surprise to say more of the same is not an acceptable answer.

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