Dr. Amanda Wilkerson is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Central Florida.
“Black women have nursed a nation of strangers.” — Audre Lorde
Women’s History Month invites us to celebrate, but from where we stand as women educators, celebration alone feels dangerously insufficient.
Every March, society honors the contributions of women pioneers, thinkers, and builders. But if we are honest, tribute without truth is tokenism. From the front lines of America’s schools and universities, we see a different reality. We see curricula restricted. We see truth politicized.
We see the intellectual labor of women, especially Black women, praised in rhetoric and undermined in practice. Tribute without truth is tokenism. Recognition without protection is performance. And this year, more than ever, a reckoning is due.
When Audre Lorde wrote that Black women have “nursed a nation of strangers,” she was not speaking metaphorically. She was naming a historical truth. Women have sustained this country physically, emotionally, and intellectually, often remaining overlooked, undervalued, and unprotected by the very systems they strengthened.
