The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.

"Protect Jordyn Woods at all costs!!!," a tweet read after her Red Table Talk appearance and what will arguably be hailed as one of the most watched moments of 2019. Black women flooded to Jordyn's defense after she was mercifully buoyed up by her "auntie" Jada Pinkett Smith after Khloe Kardashian and members of her grown woman girl gang all but gave Jordyn a public flogging. Jada Pinkett Smith flashed a giant stop sign in the form of her infamous red table when she invited Jordyn on to tell her side of the story. 

Afterward, we all let out a collective "oh!" when it was revealed that the details of Jordyn and Tristan Thompson's alleged affair was virtually nonexistent. The tables then turned on Khloe, so to speak, who subsequently accused Jordyn of being the reason "my family broke up." Black female Twitter, and essentially the whole world, followed up with a swift "hold on now!" and built up a comfortable wall around Jordyn by adding roughly 1.3 million followers to her social media accounts and selling out of her workout wear and beauty products. The "we got you" messaging was heard loud and clear by the Kardashian camp as Khloe issued a hasty retraction and Jordyn became an overnight sensation. 

All good things must come to an end, though, and it would seem that this week Jordyn fell out of the good graces of Black women by making an off-hand comment about what this experience has taught her about being Black. 

As was reported earlier this week, according to the Daily Mail, Woods recently appeared on a panel at a Homecoming Festival in Nigeria where she shared with the crowd that the recent backlash she's received gave her a firm grip on how it feels to be a Black woman, for the very "first time" in her life.

"My little sister was bullied in school and I wanted to show her that if I was bullied by the world, you can [get through it]," she said. "I understood for the first time what it's like being a Black woman in society, and how we can be so disrespected and nobody can really understand to that extent until you have to live it."

And there it was, the thing that made Black women drop their swords for Jordyn.

While the comment is disheartening to me, it raises a bigger question about young people and identity. Are Black women taught at a young age about the nuances of being Black in America? Who are the gatekeepers for the harsh truth about the ways the media will harmfully tear down a Black woman versus a white woman? It's a bit of a niche circumstance. I can't imagine many people find themselves in Jordyn's position at 21, and so I don't know if there is a way that you can prep your child for that. Still, there are many circumstances that makes Jordyn's situation unique and specific and also largely alienating for many Black women, the same ones who were just raising arms in her defense. 

Jordyn Woods was raised in Calabasas and I won't pretend to know much about her upbringing, but if you're best friends with Willow and Jaden Smith, you're hardly slumming it. In Hollywood, we know that racial lines blur and being Black can be the dance between privilege and skin color. Some Black people feel like they can transcend skin color because of status. *Ahem* OJ *Ahem*.

Jordyn lived most of her life as Kylie Jenner's Black friend, the likes of which is a common position held for most of the Kardashian sisters. It is a precarious position which capitalizes on your Blackness in order to legitimize the Kardashians, but at the same time means that you are publicly cosigning a lot of the fuckery and disrespect they subject the Black community to. 

But now it seems that the bubble has burst and Jordyn is now facing the reality of her Blackness. Suddenly, she is faced with the injustice of not being given the benefit of the doubt. Imagine. For almost all Black people, this is just what happens at school, at your job, at the airport, in line at Starbucks or simply because it's Tuesday. It's hard to know why Jordyn was so unprepared for this reality since she has in fact been Black her whole life, but now that she doesn't have the security blanket of the Kardashians, she is forced to come to terms with what that might mean. It looks like no one told her that we’re not allowed to make certain mistakes publicly, much less be caught up in a scandal with a notorious family where media will kill you with lies long before your truth is spoken.

But for anyone currently dragging Jordyn for this comment, it's just giving evidence that support for Black women is conditional. The subtext is: we're here for you but only when you're being attacked by white women. If you mess up on your own, well, good luck on that island. It's also worth noting that we can't just blindly give a pass to everyone Black because they are Black. Wrong is wrong but in this situation, the Jordyn drag seems excessive.

In all of this, we need to remember that Jordyn is 21, an age where you're typically a college senior, definitely trying your best to figure it all out. It is completely possible that maybe she did just realize this. Don't forget that her conditional best friend Kylie Jenner once declared 2016 the year of "realizing shit." So seriously, maybe she really just is. I'm willing to give her a pass on this one. I don't want to perpetuate the message that if we are attacked, our people will be the ones egging the situation on. This is a form of divide and conquer that is leading us to destroy each other and making it more difficult for us to stand together, which is the real issue that Black women face in society. Black women will scrutinize each other the most.

I'm happy to take a stance to change the attitude of judgment and criticism we have towards each other. This is a time for the community to embrace Jordyn and educate her on the history of us and how she should be moving in these streets, because if we don’t tell her, who will?