1. The Distortion of Cooper’s Vision Some have taken Cooper’s line to mean that Black women must always be the “gateway,” carrying everyone else on
1. The Distortion of Cooper’s Vision 
Some have taken Cooper’s line to mean that Black women must always be the “gateway,” carrying everyone else on their backs. That it’s our duty to fight for others while ignoring when our own rights are trampled. This framing turns her empowering declaration into a burden — erasing her insistence on dignity, autonomy, and equality.
But Cooper never said, “The Black woman must sacrifice herself.”
She said, “when and where I enter…” That is self-determination, not martyrdom.
2. Duty vs. Dignity
The misuse of her words feeds into a long tradition of expecting Black women to be:
- The caretakers of movements-not even movements that are our own. Some of them that despise us.
- The backbones of families
- The silent mules who carry everyone else’s freedom while we watch our own freedoms dissipate.
This is the same harmful narrative that denies Black women rest, privacy, voice, and protection. Cooper’s statement wasn’t an invitation to strip us of boundaries. It was a proclamation of our equal stake in humanity.
3. What Cooper Really Offered
Her words are about collective uplift through justice, not self-erasure. She was saying: when the most marginalized woman (the Black woman) walks in with dignity, the race rises with her. That doesn’t mean she should be left alone to fight while others benefit. It means that her liberation is foundational — and without it, no one else’s liberation is complete.
So when people use her words to guilt Black women into standing down or sacrificing our own needs, they are stripping her quote of its radical core. The truth is:
- Black women are not required to be everyone’s saviors. We are not “security” for the entire planet.
- Protecting our own rights is protecting the community.
- Cooper’s statement was a demand for respect, not a command for servitude.
✨ Cooper’s voice was not one of endless self-sacrifice — it was one of insistence: that the world must recognize Black women’s dignity without delay or condition. When we honor that, we stop using her words to bind Black women to suffering, and instead let them fuel our rightful claim to freedom and leadership.
*PS. This isn’t even just about Cooper. This is about you and your value, dignity, and self worth. Others see it. I hope you do too, and then protect it like an exclusive gated community. Protect and value all that is YOU.