Dearest,
It’s been an extremely tough last couple of weeks with direct attacks on Black life and spirit. In the tradition of kick-starting racial terror ahead of the warm season, a white supremacist ignited The Buffalo Massacre. The piece of shit hunted down 11 Black people—most of whom were elders—and killed them in cold-blood—allegedly. Learning about how an “8-Year-Old And Her Father Survive Buffalo Mass Shooting By Hiding In A Cooler” made my blood boil. Shame on a nation with the audacity to breed such vermin. —And while on the topic of audacity and breeding, I’d be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room: “Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Ending Almost 50 Years Of Constitutional Access To Safe Abortion.”
The overturning of Roe V. Wade reminds us that “‘The Handmaiden’s Tale’ Is Fiction, Black Women Were Forced To Birth Long Before Laws On Abortion,” as it snatches away ease and access to safe terminations of pregnancy, and potentially leaves desperate, vulnerable and financially-strapped women to consider the days and practices of their foremothers, back-alley and self-induced abortions—coat hangers, sepsis and a trifling Supreme Court ruling be damned.
Black women have long suffered oppressive systems that restrict autonomy over our bodies. Surely, this is no surprise. If you know anything about the legal, statutory rape of 14-year-old Sally Hemings by her owner Thomas Jefferson, and the subsequent births of at least six children, then you know these systems will fuck us and tell us we loved it; even worse, call it an entanglement.
But I digress, for now. I must.
I cannot, will not, allow the constant turmoil and the ways of this world to break my spirit. I’m opting out in favor of a soft life—one that reflects abundance, bliss, beautiful things, happy spaces, euphoria, love and all that is good in humanity. To make it plain, I’m only fucking with things that make me smile. I want that for you, too.
Source: Courtesy of Ida Harris / harris
Over the next 62 days of summer, MADAMENOIRE is falling back from mayhem and murder to decompress, to purge, to reset. Consider this a series of mental health days, a summer of PTO. Do we really know what it’s like to wrap ourselves wholly in self-care? Imagine exploring the seat of your soul and falling deeply in love with yourself. I want us to experience, regularly, food that tastes like a party in our mouths, kindness for kindness sake, leaves of grass beneath our feet, the warmth of eternal sisterhood, good sex, astral orgasms—lots.
MN will continue to cover issues that are most important to Black women, however, I’m committed to elevating our ecosystem, putting joy into the world, participating in pleasure, over-indulging in a soft, pampered life—join me?
Yours Truly,
Ida Harris, Managing Editor
