I like to think about context like a nest of Russian dolls or the endless layers of an onion. The more you keep pulling, the more information is revealed. Even though we all might understand the idea of context, some of us exist in a reality where we can intentionally ignore it. For folks who exist context free, each day is new, and everything that came before is well outside of their conciousness.
It’s almost like having a memory card that’s wiped clean every hour.
As a Black woman I exist in the reality of a kind of hyper context. I cannot afford to have my memory card wiped clean. Retaining every bit of what came before inside every neuron and molecule is often a matter of life or death. While I try to balance out my awareness with the harms of hypervigiliance, I can’t ignore the fact that I see the world from the prism of context .
In every situation, I arrive in the context of who I am as Black woman and what that means for me both as an individual and as a person who is part of a broader cultural/historical context. The experience reminds me of John Carpenter’s classic film They Live. Until you put those fucking glasses on, the world is peachy keen. Black women always have those fucking glasses on-at all times.
This is why my eye twitches at the phrase “It’s just” fill in the blank. It’s just sports, it’s just music, it’s just books, it’s just TV, it’s just a movie, it’s just porn, it’s just audio erotica. Or its equally infuriating companion that doubles down on the sheer audacity of the first, “Everything is not about.”
Race. Color. Gender. Sex. History. I think you get the point.
Acting brand new is never an option for Black women. In every space we inhabit, we have very little choice in arriving in the full context of who we are.
People who choose to ignore or pretend they do not exist in their own kind of context signal, that they have chosen the vilolence of ignorance and intentional cluelessness. The choice makes those folks extremely unsafe and untrustworthy for those who have no option but to full understand their context.
Judging by the continued state of the world, a whole lot of people have decided stay committed to their contextual cluelessnes.