The #SimoneBiles 2021 Tokyo Olympics fracas is consistent with the experience of Black women the world over. In the workplace, work cultures are a kind of mirror institution- microcosms reflecting wider hegemonic cultures of obedience and capital-as-value. Its no wonder that Black and brown peoples, survivors of colonial and imperialist impositions of value and obedience, are the most oppressed by this hegemony.

The Strong Black Woman trope is a holdover from slavery and a response to racial violence - she is ever vigilant in order to survive disposal. The trope is predicated on a racialized and gendered amalgam of person-object-tool, a boundaryless resource uniquely capable of suffering. The contemporary spin is the Resilient Black Woman. Simone, Naomi and Sha’Carri illustrated what could be the beginning of a release of that internalized, social and historical yoke. They begin to resist normative claims on them as complying assets whose highest function is to add value, insisting that they are replete with humanity and the grace it should confer.

The highly publicized contention over these women has inarguable roots in economic and social production, which fall squarely in the wheelhouse of planning. My hope is that planners, economic and community developers attuned to systemic injustice understand and apply lessons from these popular instances of Black Feminine Rebellion to inform more explicit projects for freedom.

Thumbnail image from Yahoo.com article "Simone Biles Credits Naomi Osaka for Inspiring Her to 'Focus on My Mental Health'"