04/18/2026
Nancy Metayer Bowen. Cerina Fairfax.
Two Black women leaders whose lives were taken in acts of domestic violence. This is not separate from power. This is what power looks like when it goes unchecked.
Justin Fairfax was a Black man with access, proximity, and institutional credibility. And still, harm showed up in devastating ways. That is not a contradiction. That is a warning.
Oppression does not disappear when we gain access. It embeds. It adapts. It shows up in how we lead, how we relate, and how we exercise control when we feel threatened.
What we are witnessing is not isolated. It is patterned.
Look at our workplaces.
Thousands of highly qualified women and q***r professionals are sitting “open to work.” Experienced. Capable. Ready. Passed over.
At the same time, organizations are struggling with culture, retention, and trust in leadership.
That is not a pipeline issue. That is not a talent shortage. That is a leadership failure.
We have normalized environments where ego is rewarded, accountability is optional, and harm is managed instead of addressed.
This is not working.
Representation alone is not liberation. Access alone is not transformation.
Power without self-examination reproduces the very systems many claim to oppose.
If we are serious about equity, then we have to tell the truth about what leadership requires. Emotional intelligence. Accountability. The discipline to not turn personal pain into public harm.
Protecting Black women is not a slogan. It is a standard.
Until that standard is upheld in our homes, in our leadership, and in our institutions, the outcomes will not change.
