By: Brittany M. Thompson
Slay in Your Lane, the Black girl Bible, by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené is an absolute revelation. It highlights and validates the experiences of Black women in society. Every Black child has been told that you must be twice as good to get half the credit of your mediocre colleague. In this book, we hear from other Black woman that have had these same experiences and made a way for themselves despite the constant challenges and critiques placed in front of them.
Adegoke and Uviebinene, best friends who met at Uni, join forces to share their experience working, living and loving in Great Britain as Black women. Adegoke is a senior writer at The Pool, who writes about race, feminism and popular culture. Uviebinené is a marketing manager and has worked on some of the biggest brands in the United Kingdom. Together Adegoke and Uviebinené interview leading Black women across Great Britain including BAFTA award winning director Amma Asante, musician Estelle, Dawn Butler and more.
I wasn’t aware of all the woman that they had interviewed. In the US we don’t often get a lot of British Black imports except for Estelle and Idris Elba (and a few others). As a Black woman in this world we’ve all faced a multitude of microaggressions at the water cooler, the grocery store and even within our own families. I can’t be the only one that has a father who is begging me to get a perm on a weekly basis.
When I met with Yomi, she shared how her mother couldn’t believe she had went on TV with her hair in a natural state. I completely understood how she felt in navigating a world that judge us for just being our authentic selves.
A lot of the women interviewed, started their careers in the corporate world before becoming entrepreneur’s. I loved that the book highlighted the experience of Black woman entrepreneurs who took it upon themselves to make their own lane in which they can and are succeeding.
Adegoke and Uviebinené tackle the difficulty of dating as a Black woman. We ask ourselves, does he date Black girls or am I just a fetish? We’ve often been called the prettiest Black girl, which isn’t a compliment. Why does my pretty need to be qualified? I’ve never heard a man say that Kim Kardashian is the prettiest white girl, she’s just called pretty. This chapter shared the nuisance of dating as a Black woman and being open to find love unexpectedly. A few of the women interviewed in this chapter, shared how they fought against dating outside of their race to only fall in love with someone that is White.
Elizabeth shared such a poignant thought in the chapter labeled, WORK, “We don’t need to get over a bar of excellence we didn’t create. Instead we have to create our own lane and our version of success, our own version of good.” This couldn’t be more spot on and what we’re seeing across the US and the UK that Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs. We’ve always made our own way and now future generations have a book to help guide them through the many challenges that they’ll face and help them slay in their very own lanes!
Pick up your copy of Slay in Your Lane today wherever books are sold. You can also follow Elizabeth and Yomi on Twitter.
