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Forget Calling in Sick. Can We Call in Black, Please?
Evelyn from the Internets speaks about her viral video
It’s Monday morning, you wake up, brush your teeth, have your coffee, maybe even get a good workout in! You’re ready to start your day! You pick up your phone for a quick social media scroll and that’s when you see it:
The hashtag. The protests. The video. Another Black man, Black woman, Black child. Murdered by the police.
Suddenly, the day feels like trash and you just want to crawl back into bed. But what excuse can you give to your boss? You’re not exactly sick, but you are sick and tired of having to explain to the world that your life matters.
Evelyn Ngugi, more famously known as Evelyn from the Internets, felt similarly after the death of Sandra Bland in 2015. She came up with the idea of calling in Black and created a now-viral video about how so many Black people need to take some time for themselves when perpetual racism becomes too heavy of a burden to bear.
The YouTube star spoke with ZORA about her viral video, how she’s managing her mental health through ongoing violence against Black bodies, and about whether “calling in Black” should be a real thing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
ZORA: What exactly does it mean to “call in Black?” How does someone do it?
Evelyn Ngugi: “Calling in Black” is needing to take some time away from the demands of life whether you are a child because school is stressful or whether you’re an adult because being an adult and going to work is stressful.
When there are news reports or current events happening that kind of trigger the fight or flight response, where do we put those feelings? At the very least, I feel like we should be able to [take some time off]. Calling in Black is a desire to take some time for yourself and not have to put on a facade of being okay when not only are we not okay, but our society is not okay and they’re perpetuating the harm onto us.
