We’ve Been Dying While Riding

Ride or Die Chick: a woman who holds down her family and community She can be called upon by family, friends or significant other at any given time, day or night, and will show up, no questions asked.

This book flashed a flood light on the subject of a “ride or die chick”, way of being for black women, often at our own peril. When one’s self-worth is connected to how much she can be of service to others, going above and beyond for everyone in every aspect of her life, reciprocity is of no consequence. To her, love has to be earned, and there’s no limits on how far she’ll go to attain it as ‘No’ does not exist in her vocabulary.

This, as stated by the author, has left Black women exhausted, overworked, overlooked, and feeling depleted. She elaborates that the susceptibility to this mentality by Black women is due to its normalization within our culture, ringing loud in hip-hop songs, in our interpersonal relationships and our relationship with self. Hubbard implores us through the backdrop of hip-hop to become keenly aware of how this shows up in our lives and that of our sister friends and to do the work necessary for self to heal, freeing ourselves from this trope.