Black Women Are the Adults in the Room

We’re so often the only ones ready to call people out when necessary

Luvvie Ajayi Jones
ZORA

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Maxine Waters. Photo: John Sciulli/Getty Images

TThe dumpster fire that is the state of affairs keeps raging, with no real end in sight. The coronavirus pandemic is showing how unprepared we are, around the world, for real crises. It is especially showing America’s underskirt. That’s what Nigerians call the slip you wear under your clothes: underskirt. The United States’ business is all out in these streets, and it ain’t clean.

Between the U.S. government’s massive failure in responding properly to the Covid-19 threat, and some citizens’ lack of cooperation, I’m tired as hell of people. I’m in a disappointment loop with a country that purports itself as a world leader, but in a moment of a global crisis has dropped every ball, and left its people to die unnecessarily. When you have a functionally illiterate Orange Fuckboi with the temper of a four-year-old at the wheel, you are always one swerve away from crashing. We’ve swerved. All the social systems that should prop us up right now are cracking under the weight. And everyday brings new disaster from the ruling elite, showing that patriarchy and Caucasity is going to kill us all. This is why the folks who I’m using as my anchor and my grounding are Black women.

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Luvvie Ajayi Jones
ZORA
Writer for

2x NYTimes best-selling author, speaker and podcast host. Latest book: Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual. The goal is to loan people courage.