Black Women Lead: Future Hinges on Listening

In a year filled with challenging headlines and a sense of moving backward, a critical question echoes across Black communities: Who is truly standing with us? As two women dedicated to fighting for equity, we see the exhaustion and the demand for accountability, especially from young voters and Black women who feel their labor has sustained systems that often overlook them.

Clarity Amidst Disillusionment

Recent polling from “The Highland Project,” conducted with “Brilliant Corners Research and Strategy,” reveals a stark reality: 8 out of 10 Black women voters believe America is worse off than it was just a few years ago. This isn’t apathy; it’s a clear recognition that Black women’s priorities have been acknowledged in words but rarely reflected in structural change. Their top concern? The erasure of Black history, which worries 83% of them—even more than economic instability.

We’ve witnessed this firsthand. Young people are turning away from politicians who fail to meet them on their terms, platforms, and realities. On a larger scale, data shows Black women are disproportionately affected by the economic downturn. Fifty-five percent feel their wages aren’t keeping pace with the cost of living, half are impacted by job cuts personally or through family, and nearly half don’t feel financially prepared for retirement. In April alone, Black women lost 106,000 jobs—the highest number of any demographic.

Reimagining Power and Prosperity

Despite these economic uncertainties, “The Highland Project’s” polling reveals that Black women remain deeply committed to collective well-being. They are actively reimagining prosperity beyond just higher incomes, envisioning a future with abundant choices, financial freedom, thriving health, and a strong sense of shared belonging. This vision is being built through new leadership models that prioritize collective needs, treating rest as essential, care as valuable currency, and freedom as a shared investment.

Our organizations, “Rise” and “The Highland Project,” are working to build the infrastructure that communities have long been denied. We’re mobilizing millions of students and designing sustainable pathways to wealth and belonging. This work is fueled by proprietary data showing Black women are becoming more intentional about how they invest their money and energy, with 77% citing economic uncertainty as a top worry.

Listening as a Form of Leadership

This moment demands a new kind of listening—one that invests in Black women rather than extracts from them. Frameworks like “Black Women’s Best” demonstrate that when Black women are centered, everyone benefits. The policies and leaders we need are already here, waiting to be resourced, trusted, and amplified. To those shaping policy and public priorities, we offer a reminder: our commitment has never wavered. Our collective future hinges on whether institutions will finally match that commitment by listening to and investing in the women who have consistently kept democracy alive.

We are no longer waiting for permission. We are leading, as we always have: with care, courage, and a clear vision for what comes next. Because when Black women are sustained, everyone is sustained. This investment offers not just a chance to survive the future, but the power to build it.