Dear Ms. Brown,

I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. I have spent my entire life in a limbo of misunderstandings for I am neither just black nor just female, I am both. By putting my story in words, I finally feel as if someone understands me and my struggle. You have taken the time to care and attempt the impossible task of explaining why it is I am the way I am.

From the time we were brought over here as mere property to be worked to death, black woman have had to suffer at the hands of anyone who has had control them. Whether was through the sexual exploitation by their white slave masters, the sacrifice of self in order for white women to be considered "true women," or even by the hands of the defeated black male, black women have faced a long history of oppression that cannot be easily understood by outsiders. This painful and unique history is often ignored and pushed aside for the greater good of the whole, as seen in the Civil Rights Movement where the uplift of all African Americans came at the price of the African American woman being able to stand up for herself, regardless of who she was wronged by.

Your words have touched me and I hope they will help some other soul understand the precarious predicament of the black female. Yet, as much as this had brought me comfort and hope, it has also left me with questions that I'm not even sure can be answered. Why is that historians gloss over or refuse to acknowledge the differences in woman's history as it pertains to race, class and even sexuality? Why is this also true of history about race as it tends to ignore the separate problems that arise with being female and ethnic. This also causes me wonder how or if any of these problems of intersectionality are truly an issue if race is based off of social formulations as theorized by Thomas C. Holt. In a world where race, ethnicity and even gender has become so important, I cannot understand nor allow my voice to be ignored any longer.

Sincerely,

The Silent Majority