Chances are, you know a Blerd woman. Whether you follow her on Twitter for her cleaver banter and creativity or you see one each day in your own home, you know a Black nerd woman. And, you know just how much we are going through right now.

Take a look at any social media platform to see a Black woman laboring to make something of this world while being asked by various progressives to save it. Meanwhile, Black women like Anita White and Amina Mucciolo spend years building a brand from scratch, only to have a corporate America strip them of livelihood without recourse. Appropriation, wage inequality, high pregnancy morbidity, and now an increased risk of COVID-19 and the trauma of police brutality are all problems Blerd women must tackle. Oftentimes, we tackle them alone.

One of our goals here at Blerd Galaxy is to highlight the state of the Blerd woman. We won’t stop there. Our platform will become hers, keeping her plight in the and shouting it loud until something is done until someone comes tour aid. Here’s a glimpse at some of those issues so that you can see what we are working with.

Creative Labor Robbery

Amina Mucciolo is a bright, vibrant Blerd whose personality is not hard to miss. Her colorful hair, clothing, and makeup have become a brand—one that she has carefully cultivated over the years. Then, this year, Amina found herself stamped into doll formed, mass-produced, and shipped to stores all over the country. The LOL Surprise doll is the hottest toy on the market, but Amina’s not getting a dime. In fact, the only thing she has received is an attack on Twitter from the CEO of the multimillion-dollar company.

 

As of this printing, Amina has not received compensation from the toy company.

Amina is not alone. Anita White is another Black woman who spent 18 years building her brand and her brand Lady A, in the jazz world. Then, just a few months shy of her 2020 album release, she gets some news. A juggernaut of a country band, Lady Antebellum had awakened during the recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests and realized that “antebellum” was linked to slavery. It took them five minutes to change their name to Lady A.

Five minutes to erase the livelihood and nearly two decades of hard work a black woman has created. The band claimed that they would come to a compromise. Then in early July came the news. They were suing Anita White for copyright infringement. Over a name, she has had longer than the band had been together.

The Real Lady A plans to fight and so does Amina.

These are just two examples of the creative and labor robbery that Black women suffer daily. And have for years. For these women, they can only hope that the court will see their side of things. We will keep you informed on the outcome.

Blerd Women and Health

The most recent COVID-19 data shows that people of color, black people specifically, are contracting the virus and dying at a record rate. It’s much higher than our white counterparts, and theirs is higher than much of the world. At last count, the U.S. was ranked 55^th worst maternal morbidity in the world. Add to that the stress of living in a racist country and you get a good idea of why health is something we need to look at when considering the state of the Blerd Woman.

Black mothers are struggling right now with the decision to send their kids to schools unequipped to contain the virus fueling a pandemic. Or, keep them home and suffer the financial consequences. Add to that the higher rate at which the black community is being infected and you can see the problem. There is also the fact that the leadership in America has decided to act as though the virus does not exist. It seems that the news of coronavirus hitting Black and brown people the hardest has them abandoning their search for the cause or even a solution.

There is also the fact that the medical establishment is fraught with systemic racism against Black people. That is part of the reason Black women are dying during and after childbirth in America. Even Serena Williams and her billionaire husband could not buy their way out of it. Williams is vocal about how she almost died of blood clots after being dismissed by the nurses and ignored. Within the last decade, CDC began digging through the numbers to get to the bottom of this. The urgency was driven home when an epidemiologist on the team, Shalon Irving, died within weeks of giving birth. There are still no concrete answers on the horrible risk that birth presents to American mothers. One thing that is for sure, racism plays a significant role for Black mothers.

We will be here reporting the numbers and developments until they figure this out. We will make it out of this pandemic as well, Blerd women. Just follow precautions and stay as safe as you can.

Money is Funny

The last place we need to consider when we talk about the state of Blerd women is in earnings. Did you know that Black women earn $.62 for every dollar a white man earns for the same work?

Did you also know that every year, there’s an Equal Pay Day? It’s a way to measure income disparity in our country. White men earn a full wage in a year, so their date of equity is December 31, 2019. To make the same amount of money, Blerd women must work most of 2020. In fact, we haven’t earned it on the day that this is written. Our day of equity is August 13, 2020. Indigenous women must wait until October 1, 2020, and our Latina cousins don’t get all theirs until October 29, 2020!

We should all be getting our full pay on December 31, 2019, and until that happens, we will be here reporting it

The State of the Blerd Woman—We Here!

Blerd women are trendsetters, peacemakers, and problem solvers. And, we are everywhere. We are in government, the boardroom, the surgical arena, classroom—everywhere. Our proliferation has not saved Blerd women from bearing the brunt of the systemic racism that still dictates American societal norms. That has not stopped our shine, however. And, we’ve proven this. Blerd women have used COVID19 to pivot, to thrive. Many have we keep our voices loud on reproductive justice (to combat the pregnancy morbidity), on the racism that still lingers despite how woke white people have gotten, and on the society that not only enslaved us but now wishes that we would save them.

We are not strangers to any song in the book of woes in this piece. And, that’s what we hold onto. Blerd women, we have been holding down the culture while trying to find our space for years, for generations. Today is no different.

Stay informed. Stay safe. Stick with us at Blerd Galaxy for more information.

If you really know a Blerd woman, tell her to check us out.