-Welcome to Black History Month. It hits a bit harder this year. 2020 saw many white folx in the US finally awaken and recognize that we live in a white supremicist culture and the deep, continued harm that Black Americans experience in this country. Some positive changes have come out of the protests from last year, but not enough. Oh, and just so everyone is clear, Weighty Things is an anti-racist company.
As us fat folx know, representation matters. Seeing ourselves portrayed in a positive light makes a difference not only in how we feel, but in how others see and treat us. The same goes for any other marginalized group. For this reason, I try to be very aware of the images and people I highlight. I always want to be highlighting a diverse group of people. I don’t always succeed as well as I would like, but I will keep improving.
There are far better writers and thinkers out there who write about the importance of learning our true history in the US, not the literally whitewashed version we get in school. There are other people who can explain the roots of the continued mistreatment of BIPOC people in this country, and every other important idea we should focus on this month. I’m not going to try. But what I can do is use this month to highlight amazing fat Black humans and the fabulous work they are doing as black activists, as feminst activists, as fat activists, and more.
But one month is NOT enough. We must recognize and celebrate the contributions of marginalized folx as much as we recognize and celebrate the contributions of straight, white, christian, cisgendered men. But to get to that place, we must first overcompensate. We must purposely highlight BIPOC, queer, disabled, femme, and all other marginalized people more, until who we all are - in our diverse glory - is normalized and equalized. So while I will be focusing on exclusively black fat humans this month. I promise to continue to focus on highlighting black and other marginalized people.
So Happy Black History Month. Here is a sampling of some of my favorite fat, black humans!
Black Humans You Probably Don’t Know, But Should
If You Haven’t Heard of These Black Folks, it's Time to Catch Up
You Can’t Have Missed these Awesome Black Humans
Plus so so many more!