'Tired. Damn tired.' Some Black women are processing the grief of a Kamala Harris loss

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<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4007x5610+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7f%2F86%2Ff28f37e14516989c2ac5671c6d24%2Fvenita-doggett9.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4007x5610+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7f%2F86%2Ff28f37e14516989c2ac5671c6d24%2Fvenita-doggett9.jpg" class="img" alt="Venita Doggett in her backyard garden in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 26." loading="lazy"/> Venita Doggett in her yard backyard in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 26. She mentioned the day after election day was laborious for me. "I received up and noticed the headline that he had received, that Trump had received. And I used to be simply despondent." Ariel J. Cobbert for NPR disguise caption

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Ariel J. Cobbert for NPR There was a chorus we heard many times from the seven Black ladies NPR talked with for this story.

"It's exhausting," says Venita Doggett, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., and works for a nonprofit doing training advocacy.

"We're drained. We're rattling drained," one other lady instructed us. She requested NPR to not use her title as a result of she works in Variety, Fairness and Inclusion at a public college in Minnesota, and she or he fears that lots of people who work in and round DEI are being focused proper now.

This sense of being underneath risk as a Black particular person, as a girl, and particularly as a Black lady feels continuous, she says, even earlier than the presidential election.

"On November sixth, I used to be exhausted. I did not notice how a lot it felt like I used to be holding my breath."

In line with the Pew Analysis Heart, 84% of Black ladies are Democrats or lean that means. Black ladies voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in excessive numbers this yr; exit polls present their help at over 90%. Now, lots of them are grieving the lack of a candidate who would have been the nation's first Black, feminine president. On the similar time they're bracing themselves for what would possibly occur underneath the second presidency of Donald Trump.

The girl from Minnesota says there's fixed stress to interact politically, an unrelenting narrative that Black ladies will save democracy. However she asks, who's going to avoid wasting Black ladies?

"Eager about this demand of Black ladies to step as much as the plate and do that work at all times with out wavering. And I am, -- there's going to be some wavering."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5698x4070+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22%2Fb3%2F830310f344ebb81f5f9e3a6d8ed8%2Fvenita-doggett6.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5698x4070+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22%2Fb3%2F830310f344ebb81f5f9e3a6d8ed8%2Fvenita-doggett6.jpg" class="img" alt="Venita Doggett in her backyard garden in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 26." loading="lazy"/> Venita Doggett in her yard backyard in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 26. Ariel J. Cobbert for NPR disguise caption

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Ariel J. Cobbert for NPR She says she's discovered herself pulling again a bit of after the election, spending time along with her household, along with her group, and with herself.

"In a world that always containers us in and beats us down, we won't act like we're not bruised," she says. "We've to care for ourselves. We've to are inclined to our wounds."

"You positively hate Black ladies" Doggett went to sleep early on election evening. She says she simply did not wish to watch.

"I received up and noticed the headline that he had received, that Trump had received. And I used to be simply despondent," Doggett says.

"I additionally instructed my advocate mates that I had the audacity to hope, and I'm mad at myself for having it."

"Wednesday night, I broke." She says Trump profitable the favored vote felt private.

"I simply thought, like, you positively hate Black ladies," she says, referring to the many individuals who voted for Trump, and towards Harris. "You actually hate us. Us, who primarily birthed the nation actually out of our our bodies — snatched youngsters out of our wombs to construct the U.S."

But it surely's not simply Black individuals she's anxious about now, she says. Plenty of her teenage daughter's mates come from immigrant mixed-status households, and with Trump's plans for mass deportations, she says she is terrified for them.

"Is that the legacy of worry that we wish to impart upon individuals," she asks. "And why are we okay with it?"

Grief, betrayal and shifting ahead "I most likely actually haven't processed the grief but," Bonita Buford says. Buford is the CEO of the Gantt Heart for African-American Arts and Tradition in Charlotte, N.C.

"Possibly it is hope that I am mourning," she says. "Possibly it was a bit of sort of disappointment in humanity."

Buford says she additionally feels betrayed, particularly by white ladies voters.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4200x2800+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fec%2Fe3%2F03b8a6c94165ba9bab0d4533dba7%2Fbonita-npr-cw-4.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4200x2800+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fec%2Fe3%2F03b8a6c94165ba9bab0d4533dba7%2Fbonita-npr-cw-4.jpg" class="img" alt="Bonita Buford, President of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, stands for a portrait at the Gantt Center on Nov. 26 in Charlotte, N.C." loading="lazy"/> Bonita Buford, President of the Harvey B. Gantt Heart for African-American Arts and Tradition, stands for a portrait on the Gantt Heart on Nov. 26 in Charlotte, N.C. Cornell Watson for NPR disguise caption

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Cornell Watson for NPR "When you concentrate on white ladies particularly, who have been voting early and speaking about, , 'effectively, I voted for her… I am not going to inform my husband.' So, have been these all lies?" she asks.

In line with exit polls performed by Edison Analysis, 53% of white ladies voters picked Trump this yr. The identical ballot confirmed extra Latinos and Black males additionally voted for him than in earlier elections. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Latinos and Black males voted for Harris.

Buford says proper now she's specializing in what she will do. She says her work main a Black arts group is extra essential than ever. Artwork can disarm individuals, she says.

"I generally say it is a sneaky method to make change."

Doggett says as a Black lady, it generally doesn't really feel like she has time to relaxation, not to mention grieve.

She fears Black ladies and different traditionally marginalized communities might be most impacted by Trump and his allies' proposed insurance policies, from training to policing.

"There's simply numerous burnout."

She says she is popping to household and mates to recharge. She's interested by what outfit she's going to put on to a "friendsgiving," and about which present to binge watch over the vacation.

"I spent numerous time in my backyard," Doggett says. "I do not know every other place besides to search out solace on the planet that, , the land -- that has given beginning to us all. "