Being a Visible Marker: How Black Queer Women Activists Battle Microaggressions

• In Event: 282 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 01. Race, Gender, and Media

Abstract

Social movement scholarship has accounted for ‘leadership capital,’ or the combination of qualities that contribute to an effective leader, to explain the inner workings of social movement success (Nepstad & Bob 2006; Ganz 2004). However, the scholarship neglects the effects of everyday oppression on the leaders. This study examines the Black queer women chapter leaders of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. #BlackLivesMatter is a movement fighting against intersectional oppression by first addressing police brutality, mass incarceration and the dehumanization of Black people in the United States. Black queer activist women are leading this movement while facing oppression for their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. However, the majority of social movement leadership, and therefore scholarship on the topic, has centered men (Morris & Staggenborg 2005). Shifting the focus from male leaders, this pilot case study will interview 10 Black queer activist women in leadership positions in the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. This project examines what “self-care” strategies, or coping mechanisms in response to microaggressions, can tell us about effective leadership. Building on the notion of leadership as central to successful social movements, I hypothesize that “self-care” is an important mediating factor in leadership that social movements literature has not yet addressed.

Author

• Anthony James Williams, University of California, Berkeley