Here’s a question that keeps me up at night: Why are Black girls and women supposedly “hard to reach” when it comes to research?
Because here’s what I’ve noticed – we’re not hard to reach. We’re selective. And there’s a difference.
The Whispered Warnings We Carry
Think about what you’ve heard about research growing up. Maybe it was whispered warnings about Tuskegee. Maybe it was that look your grandmother gave when someone with a clipboard approached. Maybe it was watching your community get “studied” but never seeing the benefits flow back to your neighborhood.
You learned to be cautious. You learned to ask: Who’s asking? Why? What’s in it for us?
That wasn’t paranoia. That was intelligence.
The Institutions That Forgot to Include Us
Now think about the universities, think tanks, and organizations that publish research. How many Black women do you see leading those studies? How many times have you seen research about Black communities written by people who’ve never lived in them?
You’ve watched institutions build entire careers studying us while we remained locked out of the rooms where our stories get interpreted, our experiences get quantified, and our solutions get ignored.
So when someone approaches you with a survey or wants to interview you for their study, that little voice that says “wait a minute” isn’t resistance – it’s wisdom.
Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know
Research isn’t a mysterious academic ritual reserved for people with advanced degrees and institutional affiliations.
Research is what you did when you figured out which schools in your district actually prepare kids for college.
Research is what you did when you tested different protective styles to see what worked best for your hair.
Research is what you did when you analyzed your workplace culture to understand why Black women keep leaving.
You asked questions. You gathered information. You tested solutions. You drew conclusions.
Congratulations. You’re already a researcher.
The Word That Was Weaponized Against You
“Research” has been deliberately wrapped in academic jargon and institutional gatekeeping to make you feel like you don’t belong in those conversations. Like your knowledge isn’t valid. Like your questions aren’t sophisticated enough.
But here’s the truth they don’t want you to discover: Your questions are the most important ones.
The questions that come from lived experience. The questions that challenge assumptions. The questions that center community needs instead of institutional convenience.
Those are the questions that change everything.
Your Resistance is Your Superpower
Every time you’ve said “I don’t do surveys,” you were protecting yourself and your community from extraction. Every time you’ve been selective about who gets access to your story, you were exercising agency that researchers spend entire careers trying to understand.
Your skepticism isn’t a barrier to overcome – it’s expertise to be respected.
The Real Question
So here’s what I want to know: What would happen if you stopped thinking of yourself as someone who gets researched and started thinking of yourself as someone who does research?
What questions would you ask? What communities would you center? What solutions would you design?
What’s Next
If this resonates, if it’s stirring something in you, then let’s keep this conversation going.
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Because the world needs your questions. The world needs your analysis. The world needs research that’s by us, not just about us.
Your voice belongs here. Let’s make sure it’s heard.
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