Ep. 141: Black Women & Vashti Vindicated: Acknowledging Pet to Threat & Countering Disposability

What happens when those who were once celebrated as respected and promising leaders become seen as threats? What happens when institutions benefit from the labor of Black women and and other leaders with marginalized identities, only to discard them once they begin to achieve what they were hired to do? 

In this revelatory episode, April N. Baskin explores Vashti’s erasure—not just as a biblical anecdote, but as a recurring pattern in movements, organizations, and professional spaces today, especially for Black women.

With honesty and scholarly depth, April shares her own journey of being embraced, then excluded, from spaces she once poured herself into. She unpacks how the concept of neo-plantationism, a concept April originally coined, can help us better understand how historic domination and control patterns at still at play within contemporary professional and social spaces, and why so many courageous leaders experience systemic and harmful pushback when they are successful at advocating for real change they were hired/asked to advance.

This episode is an offering of truth (including a painful and alarming story not previously shared), solidarity, and hopeful conviction—a declaration that we are not disposable. That we will not be erased. That our labor, wisdom, love, and voices matter and aren't going anywhere, despite efforts to the contrary.

Show Notes

• More information and context on Vashti and Purim - access here
  
  
• When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat, First your boss loves you, then they dislike you. Here’s how Black women can manage the icy transition, by Erika Stallings - access article here

Transcript

In honor of both Purim and more timeless efforts around collective liberation, in this episode and the next, I will be discussing first solo and then with a beloved friend themes that are inspired by the sparse but important story surrounding Vashti in the story of Purim.

I remember, and this is one of my favorite things about good sociological information, that as I was reading the article, I felt a little creeped out—like, was this woman on my shoulder during my tenure in this role? Because it was like she had been secretly filming it. It was like this little gnome, this little fairy on my shoulder, and it's like she heard the conversations that I was a part of. To a T.

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There's so much to say here. I only have a limited time to record this specific episode right now, and especially since I'm going to be inviting my friend, Jesi "Rock" Taylor, into the next episode for us to further discuss this. I think I can just breathe into this and begin to open the conversation.

Before I do, as per usual, I have a couple of caveats or framing—a little bit of framing that I want to provide to say that for this episode and likely the next, I'm not diving deep into the text. I'm looking overarchingly at the themes, at the ways I was conditioned around the story, the Book of Esther, at some of the overarching trends. And so, that's the framework that I'm bringing here.

For my fellow Jews and or people of other faith backgrounds who really love to dig deep into the text, that's not what's happening. In this episode, it's more that I am honoring and engaging and in relationship with the broader themes of the story and engaging in contemporary reflection about the ways in which it is inspiring and amplifying themes that are important.

There's just so much depth and richness within the Megillah, within the Book of Esther.

It's one of those—I mean, I feel this way about most time-bound texts in the Jewish tradition, texts that we revisit in cycles, and I just got so excited this morning as I thought about it being Purim and about the thought of how fun for me to greet Purim with where I am now.

So I want to talk about vindicating Vashti here. There's very little that's said in the text about Vashti in general. There are little bits of stories here and there. There are multiple dynamics that we could get into, multiple areas that I could talk about that relate to leadership of people with marginalized identities, especially women and femmes and non-binaries of color, but also other targeted people too. But I'm specifically going to zero in on that since that is a place where I have deep knowledge and lived experience, but also extensive learning and healing around that.

As I've gotten older—so, in the story, Esther is lifted up, who in fact actually is quite a young person, like a teen or a preteen. So in various feminist and other spaces, there's increasingly, in recent years, some alarm and concern, like maybe we should look at that.

From my perspective, there are multiple things that are relevant to me. For one, I always was kind of intrigued by Vashti, but I generally, in my conditioning, kind of went with a general sense of not paying much attention to her and it being a side note. But I could probably do a lot more about this. But in this moment, I just want to lift up first wives, first women in major leadership roles, first women of color, and non-binary folks of color within relationships and or in major, major roles.

For me, there's contemporary relevance in the story of Vashti around dynamics of disposability. Relatedly and also separately, there's an episode or perhaps a series of episodes I could do about the dynamic of neo-plantationism. That did not originate within Jewish communal life and is not exclusive to Jewish communal life. But as a Jew of color who has navigated various spaces in the Jewish community and dynamics, I absolutely want to have a longer conversation about neo-plantationism. I'm not sure if this is that episode, but we see elements of that dynamic in this story.

To be clear about that very briefly, and obviously, I can explain it more—when I'm saying neo-plantationism, I'm talking about what are some of the power dynamics that happened in the context of slavery, that some of those dynamics are a part of a playbook around the ways that people orient to not just people of African heritage and the descendants of those who were enslaved, but also other folks of color or other marginalized groups. There are some elements of enslavement that can be treated as like a parable of sorts around various dynamics.

For instance, one of them that's really key is around those who were enslaved to work in the house, what might be referred to as house Negroes previously versus field Black folks or Negroes as was referenced historically. In the context of my work, I've gotten to work in the house. I worked extremely hard to get into the house and did my best to advocate for folks in the field, for other folks. I also learned—and also didn't think of it as that, to be clear. I wasn't aware that it was a variation of an extension of the enslaver's house.

I had a lot of, I don't know if it's naivete—I don't think I want to quite chalk it up to that, but I believed what people said around their intentions. And what I ended up experiencing was similar to a plantation home. There was conditionality—disproportionately more conditionality for the terms of my presence in that space and in terms of what was tolerated.

Which leads to another point that I wanted to bring up around what the story of Vashti brings up for me. That is the dynamic that I specifically have seen in an article, a wonderful article written by a Black woman about the pet to threat dynamic that women of color experience in professional spaces in America.

I absolutely experienced that when I was at a pinnacle in my career, where I began the job and literally was called kid by one of the senior people on the team. Another senior member of the team said, Don’t say that. And I was treated with a lot of kindness. It didn't bother me so much at the moment. I thought it was sweet. And maybe it should have bothered me, but it didn't. I felt the intention of the person. But in retrospect, I see the ways in which it was part of other dynamics at play—conscious or not.

I remember reading this article, and I’m forgetting the name of the author and the title, but I will include it in the show notes. And maybe we can reference it in the next episode once I have time to look. But I remember, and this is one of my favorite things about good sociological information, that as I was reading the article, I felt a little creeped out—like, was this woman on my shoulder during my tenure in this role? Because it was like she had been secretly filming it. It was like this little gnome, this little fairy, this little fey on my shoulder. And it's like she heard the conversations that I was a part of. To a T.

In my case, and in the case of many people, when we're actually excelling at what we were hired to do, there's a moment in time where the dynamic switches—going from pet and transitioning and devolving into threat.

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I was confidentially informed a few years ago that a group of women in a movement I am a part of, who are in a form of leadership, banded and organized together to blacklist me—blacklist me from going to congregations and various institutions within that movement.

Pet to threat. I have a full range of feelings and thoughts about this that range from humor to deep despair, particularly around the fact that whether it’s me specifically and/or other folks, a lot of those same institutions, over the past two years especially, are deeply struggling with their lack of intercultural competence and their lack of multi-dimensional and intersectional analysis that can effectively account for the complex terrain we're navigating. And it breaks my heart because, still to this day, I am so profoundly invested in us walking this path together and being supports to one another from our shared and quite different vantage points.

So there's obviously more context and such that needs to be given around that. But I decided a few weeks ago—there are different elements of my lived experience where I don’t want to shame anyone or create drama per se. And I want to model, especially for other loving, caring, kind-hearted leaders of color, what it may look like to not take all of our wounds in silence and take all of the abuse or attacks.

Because I think that is, at this point, a disservice for our community. And I think leaders who care about this work deserve to know and/or have amplified and affirmed that these are dynamics that are happening in our community that are undermining our capacity to evolve and be in deeper solidarity with each other—let alone all of the various partners who truly could be phenomenal coalition and movement partners with us.

I almost want to have a Vashti Bill of Rights or something. Or a manifesto of sorts—Vashti was treated, and I have been treated, as though I am disposable. And yet the truth is, I am not disposable. Vashti was not disposable and is not disposable as a figure. She is not forgotten. I am here to vindicate both, maybe literally her persona, and/or brilliant, wonderful, dedicated, loving, humble leaders who are aligned with her—who had the courage to be trailblazers and, because of various forms of systemic oppression, namely sexism and racism, and also perhaps homophobia at times, have been scapegoated, vilified, and harmed by the very leaders and organizations and people to whom we've dedicated years of our lives, heart, and soul to advancing. And who are still benefiting from the body of our work.

At times, they may shallowly, or maybe on some level sincerely, cite our work in certain ways, but still usually often benefit from a great deal of labor that we contributed in the face of resistance and oppression. And ultimately, at times, either had been taking key mindful stands and stands that were more around like, No, that's something I’m not comfortable with—violating my boundary in that way. I don’t want to be a tokenized performer while this institution, or this movement, or this group is not in alignment with the values they espouse and is potentially setting up the people with whom I have been tasked with representing for further harm.

And then, often in an effort to hide their shadows, we are pushed aside in different ways. But Vashti ain’t gonna be pushed aside this time, y'all. Neither am I.

Interesting how my voice changed with that, right? Energy is moving and flowing. There’s release happening here.

Vashti will be vindicated.

We brilliant social change leaders with targeted identities are not going to be disposed of. We have too much to give. We have too much to share. It’s time that we are celebrated. It’s time that we have the space and resources to be in sacred community and heal the areas that we need to heal. And also, the supportive of folks who harmed us getting the healing they need. We might not be the people who are best positioned or even interested in facilitating that healing. But I personally still want what I started in this work, which is for us to all be a part of collective liberation.

And so, more to come on the subject. Thanks for tuning in, sending you much, much love. And if you'd like to send any comments or be in some dialogue with me about this—if you heard this and are responding, being in response—feel free to go to joyousjustice.buzzsprout.com, click on this episode, and then click the link toward the very top of the show notes, and you’ll be able to send a text.

So much love to you. More soon.

[Music]  Thanks for tuning in. To learn more about Joyous Justice, LLC and how you can work with April, check out the info in the show notes or visit joyousjustice.com. If you enjoyed this episode, show some love! Subscribe or leave a comment wherever you're listening. Tell your people, share what you're learning. Stay humble--but not too humble!--and keep going, because the future is ours to co-create. [Music]