“Does anyone know HOW to protect Black women in this current social climate?”

That’s the question you may find yourself haunted by after watching the latest interview between Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Hollywood Unlocked CEO Jason Lee.

During the exclusive sit-down Cullors, who has been the target of increasing scrutiny over the last couple of years, seems at ease while sitting on the couch with Lee and wastes no time explaining why she specifically chose to speak to him above anyone else.

“I love how you talk to Black people,” she began, going on to explain that as a queer woman, she felt it would be powerful to sit with someone who also understood the intersections of being both Black and gay. 

“I need to sit with family. And it felt very important for me because while many folks know that I’m also queer that’s not the thing that gets sort of propagated.  I just felt like you would understand how to have this conversation in a nuanced way.”

And to her point, the conversation was indeed nuanced and at times incredibly jarring as the two unpacked not only the origin story of how Cullors, Alicia Garza & Opal Tometi all founded BLM, but also the incredibly common pitfalls that stopped them from controlling their narrative more effectively. 

RELATED: Azriel Clary On Breaking Free From R Kelly On Hollywood Unlocked With Jason Lee UNCENSORED

Is #ProtectBlackWomen Real?

Earlier this month Candace Owens – a political pundit who over the years has made it a point to target and demean celebrities and public figures who look just like her – showed up to Cullors’ Los Angeles home unannounced to ask her questions for a documentary she’s filming about BLM’s finances. 

This was not a scheduled visit and even when she was asked to leave she kept rolling the camera and pushing to speak to someone. 

To most decent human beings this would be seen as a clear act of harassment. But when Cullors took to Instagram to post a tearful video asking to be left alone, not only was she further mocked by Owens and her cronies but the silence by many who claim to be aligned with BLM was also deafening. 

In the caption accompanying the video, the 38-year-old ends her plea with the words, “Protect each other. Protect Black women.”

But what does “Protect Black Women” really mean?

Even though we see that catchphrase all over social media and emblazoned across everything from t-shirts to accessories, in real life, it’s become clear that only certain Black women get a semblance of support, advocacy, or just basic compassion.

People love to brag that the Black Lives Matter movement was started by three women, but women themselves are often left out of discussions about the movement unless they are seen as “perfect victims.” This erasure has become so prevalent, that they even had to come up with a new #SayHerName hashtag to remind the public that we even exist!

A perfect example of this ongoing disconnect is the story of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who last April was fatally shot by the police in Columbus, Ohio while attempting to defend herself in a fight. 

Because she had a knife while trying to ward off her assailant, she was painted as an “aggressor” rather than a victim and the public outcry in the wake of her killing was paltry in comparison to what we’ve seen for Black men who meet the same demise. In fact, some people in our community even sided with the police on this one, insinuating that her actions justified her death

It’s one thing to organize a protest for a model citizen or your favorite female rapper, but what about regular working-class Black women, sex workers, those with mental health issues, or co-founders of the movement who are under attack by Republican smear campaigns?

Do they not deserve to be protected too? 

Based on how Cullors has been treated, the answer seems to be a loud, resounding, “No.” 

And knowing that we – as both the backbone but also the most disrespected subsect of this community – have very little backup, is what makes the right-wing so comfortable pitting us against each other via the likes of Candace Owens.

A Modern-Day Lynching

During their exclusive sit-down, Lee characterizes the way Cullors and many like her have been treated as the mainstream’s version of a “modern-day lynching.”

He makes that stunning correlation because although it’s no longer socially acceptable to hang Black activists from a tree, it is still ok to destroy their credibility and livelihoods in a court of public opinion. 

When Lee points out that activist Shaun King, who is no stranger to controversy, has been able to operate without interruption, (despite having a much longer rap sheet of allegations against him), Cullors responds with a succinct, “No comment.”

But she does touch on the glaring double standard that sees women routinely being held to standards that no one else has to live up to. 

“I mean, I think it’s simply because I am a Black woman,” she speculates when asked why the public was so quick to believe the worst about her. 

“I think we’re easy targets… I think in general there isn’t a culture of protecting Black women,” she continues. “There is a deep culture of distrusting Black women of, you know, side-eyeing Black women, of minimizing and undermining.”

To those who still don’t understand that she is more than the co-founder of BLM she pushes back, “I have said 50 million times ‘Here are all my jobs!’ and it’s like a disconnect. It’s almost like Black women can’t be successful or Black women organizers can’t be successful. I, I don’t know. It’s something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. But I do think it’s misogynoir. I think it’s, you know, I think it’s anti-Black racism. I think it’s anti-womanism and I’m watching it in real-time.”

Last May when Cullors announced that she was stepping down from BLM some took that to be a silent admission of guilt. 

“I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” she told The Associated Press at the time. “It feels like the time is right.”

But she now reveals that stepping away from what she helped build was a decision made to keep her and her six-year-old child safe at a time when it become painfully clear that the movement itself couldn’t. 

“I wanna be really honest with you,” she told Lee. “I stepped down cause I didn’t feel like there was enough infrastructure, not just in the organization, but movement-wide to protect me. I really thought I was gonna die and I was [choosing between] death or raising my six-year-old son. Like I hear Bernice King – you know, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King – always talk about how much she misses her father. I think he was killed when she was between four and six. I kept thinking about that.”

She goes on to cite examples of how social justice movements have a tendency of not being equipped to cover those who lead them, pointing out, “We have a collective memory of what happens to our leaders…they don’t survive.”

But what is perhaps most striking and heartbreaking about this interview is despite all the ways that both the press and even her own organization were unable to cover her, Cullors is still reluctant to point the finger. 

“Did the Black Lives Matter movement fail to protect me? I don’t know,” she concludes. “I don’t want to place blame. I think that’s too harsh. I just don’t think we know how to protect each other. I don’t think we have enough wherewithal and infrastructure to differentiate what is a generative critique and how we hold someone accountable without throwing them under the bus.”

And she’s right. Until we figure out how to have honest and uncomfortable conversations with each other that are focused on accountability instead of clickbait, we will continue to cannibalize the very people in our community attempting to save us – especially the altruistic Black women amongst us who were never taught how to save themselves.  

—

Blue Telusma is a columnist whose viral think pieces have been featured on CNN, HuffPost, Buzzfeed, USA Today, BET, and several other national news outlets. Her work mainly focuses on dissecting pop culture, promoting emotional intelligence, and fostering activism through the arts.