(ThyBlackMan.com) A quick flip through Google on the way to writing this piece pulls up Merriam-Webster’s listing of a definition of the term “Sisterhood”.
It reads as follows:
- The state of being a sister
- A community or society of sisters
- The solidarity of women based on shared conditions, experiences or concerns
So family ties notwithstanding, the basic inference is that a sisterhood is comprised of women whose interactions and degree of closeness is linked to shared experiences.
Perusing these clicked off something in the back of my mind with regards to the whole “Sisterhood” ideology regarding black women especially. Utilizing the term sisterhood with regards to black women might be somewhat of a misnomer especially in today’s society. We would have to go 
back to slavery to conjure up an experience to which ALL black women were directly affected and shared in singularly albeit with differing outcomes.
Flash forward to now and the issues facing black women today are as varied as the shades that we come in. Granted some more than others, relationships and or the lack of one; health, the workplace, family is a few that come to mind. Each one however, could be broken into subgroups and would find adherents further broken into sub groups.
Can black women today be compacted into a monolith of sisterhood in light of all the various issues and varied experiences that each of us brings to the table? Is it a fair expectation to have that all black women are “sisters” when all of our issues don’t match and in some instances are in diametric opposition?
We share in our blackness for sure, and in our gender most definitely. Our sisterhoods and links to each other in today’s society take on an added dimension that is based on experiences in living, loving and just trying to stay alive in today’s world. If there is a sisterhood of sorts to be associated with black women today, it would have to encompass our wide array of differences and experiences.
We live differently, we love differently, we even pray in our own special way that works for each individual. Heck we don’t even take care of our hair the same way.
One size does not fit all – there are sisterhoods within the fellowship of sisters. Given the diversity of issues relevant to women in general and add to that issues relating to minorities and the various communities that we live in and there are legions of mini-sisterhoods across this country.
In the saga of the Lord of the Rings, there was One ring to rule them all – however that way of thinking with regards to black women and sisterhood might be missing the point entirely.
Staff Writer; Alinda Pete
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