Letters: Vanessa Adams
“For our “Letters” series, we asked two Black women in the creative/media space to open up about their unique experiences through academic institutions, social spaces and the corporate world. In this letter, Vanessa Adams, a marketing associate at Sony opens up about the strength in anger and the power in her being a Black woman in the marketing industry.”
Listen, I am angry all the time, and I simply don’t care to change it. I am a Black woman in North America, what do you expect? My brother put me on game really early, and ladies, let me just say that I was slapped in the face with the realities of what this system was going to put me through, and got real equipped with how to handle it. Well... most times. I am raised by a Ghanaian woman, which simply means even when I think I can’t, it’s in my blood to fight it.
From my beautiful, rich, one cream, two sugars, dark skin, to my “if you come to close, these nails are now weapons” long nails, I am resistance. I embodied woke before it was cool to be woke. My aesthetics, my eye for fashion and music, the trends I take part in creating and then get called ghetto or hood for partaking in, are all ways I am a walking revolution.
I was sitting here in 2019, amused at high fashion industries constantly capitalizing off of what I could not, so I decided I’m fighting for a piece of that cake too. All Black girls should; we are trendsetters. Our creativity, our eye for looks, will always be commercialized. That’s why i am in the position I am in. It's marketing, giving the masses ideas and getting paid to do so, instead of doing it for free.
They don’t respect me as a human being, but want me to labour. This recognition really affected my mental health. Being in an industry where you’re not seen and walking into spaces and not even receiving a hello, destroys your personhood. Expressing yourself and having your
employers dehumanizing you is not something anyone should go through, yet us Black women must endure this type of disrespect daily.
I am allowed to get angry. If you walked a mile in my shoes you would too. After my last position in this industry, I vowed to never be silenced again, I am thankful for Sony, because I found my voice again. A Black woman is who I report to, and it makes it easier. We need representation, we need to be protected.
They need me more than I need them, and so I will never succumb to emotional labour again. I am now well-versed in saying no. I learned the hard way what psychological warfare looks like when working as a Black woman, especially in this industry. I want more Black girls to find themselves here. We’re ghetto one day, and mocked the next, but trust me they really dig it. Our creativity is unmatched. They need us for the culture. Even when they silence us, they’re looking. They see. They don’t want to hear us, so be louder. I am loud in everything I do, especially expressing my emotions; because I see everyone else do it unapologetically.
I am kind, sensitive, vibrant, smart, creative, here. My reaction to the world dehumanizing me, should never take away from that.
Signed,
An unapologetic angry, creative Black woman.