Black Women Confessions is the anonymous and important Tumblr going viral

It’s difficult to fully describe how integral black women have been to changing our view of police brutality and what it means to be black in America. It was three black women who founded the #BlackLivesMatter movement following the death of Trayvon Martin and in that time, the movement has not only highlighted the plight of black men and boys, but, through #SayHerName, has shown exactly how misunderstood and disenfranchised black women are, too.

For many black women, there’s a lot of anxiety over whether they’ll be typecast in real life as an Oprah—loving, nurturing, strong—or an Angry Black Woman, a tired trope that hardly needs describing. For many black women, there seems to be no in-between, no room for questioning who you are. But the Tumblr, Black Women Confessions, is working to change that.

Founded in June 2014 by four anonymous creators, Black Women Confessions serves as a platform for black women to share their deepest desires, regrets, and concerns. Those can range from fun facts (“Adele’s song “Hello” makes me cry! It’s like the song opens a door I didn’t even think I had access to.”) to closely-held secrets (“I have friends and family but I still feel incredibly lonely. I have no one to talk to.”)

“This blog was created to be a safe space for Black Women to speak,” reads the blog description. “Confessions can be about black culture, celebrities, music, shows, movies, stereotypes or people in general.”

In other words, it’s a safe space where black women can show that they, like everyone else, deal with anxiety, insecurity, joy, hate, and everything else that makes human beings complex and worthy of love and appreciation.

Check out the whole blog (no matter your race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity) here. It’s pretty enlightening and we’re honestly very thankful that it exists. 

Related reading: 

Not OK: 100 percent of women of color face gender bias in this career field

Redefining beauty standards as a multi-racial woman

[Images via Tumblr]