Blog for Domestic Workers Day

She does not know
Her beauty.
She thinks her brown body,
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked,
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river
She would know
Yes, she would know.
But there are no palm trees
In the street,
No palm trees in the street
And dishwater gives back no images. - Nina Simone Images.

My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is wooly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
It's been inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah- Nina Simone Four Women

Someone else will give you facts.

Someone else will provide you with the very sensible and rational reasons for why supporting these women makes sense.

I can only tell you about what it is like to be raised by them.

I can only tell you what it is like to watch women work 40 hours for not enough.

I can only tell you what it is like to know what AIDS hospice care is at 8 years old , because your godmother makes food for the ones whose families no longer pretend to not be ashamed.

I can only tell you what it is like to know how much the word adopted grandma means to a dying woman, who is so battered they will not tell her , her son has died.

I can only tell you what it is like to have your schooling paid for in prayers and hopes and crumpled twenties tucked in heavy bras.

I can only tell you whats it's like to read the music of your body described as a " Cosmo fun sex tip" learned from " the nanny"

I can only tell you what it's like to listen to women call the love and sweat that gave you life called " non important unpaid labor"

I can only tell you stories of beatings and women jumping from balconies for fear of their lives over that same "non important unpaid labor"

To know what it is like to have that unimportant labor keep your mother from you, keep your friends latch key, dull skin and eyes of those you love.

I can only tell you what it is like to hear time and time again how "beneath" some women it is to do the work that keeps you alive.

I can only tell you what it is like to know this labor is so unimportant she makes pennies a day , but you are so much less important you can't be brung along.

I can only tell you my life.