Saving Ourselves

Monique is a member of the Young Women of Color Leadership Council. 

My passion for education far supersedes anything else to which I am dedicated. It’s one of the few spaces in my life that is static. When I enrolled in college in the fall of 2003, there was a sense of urgency concerning change that enamored my spirit. I knew that my urge to create change for people with whom I shared similar experiences was undeniable.

Social change was an unrelenting personal calling. As a student, I began to explore the breadth and depth of inequity and marginalization through my classes and personal run-ins with privileged populations on my campus. Consequently, I became angry, really angry; but I refused to let my anger be a reason to discredit the issues I brought to the table. As a result, I funneled my anger into the social justice issues that were a priority to me, ones concerning race, sexuality, gender, and class. When I evaluated my body of work pertaining to social justice (presiding over the black student association for my entire college career, creating a leadership and social justice space for women of color, mentoring young women on campus in various respects, working on issues with administration concerning financial aid for underrepresented populations, facilitating spaces where open honest dialogue about the intersection of race and sexuality could occur, etc), women of color were the pivotal point.  What I gleaned from most of the issues I encountered was that, women of color were always hit the hardest and fastest.

I truly believe that women of color carry a burden larger than most. Because of this heavy load, we are subjected and fall victim to issues that result in disparate impact. In other words, negative social trends exist and they affect women of color exponentially and communally. I became interested in this dynamic because I have witnessed it in my personal life. I see how my grandmother, mother and aunt work tremendously hard but are unable to achieve the success that their white counterparts have already obtained. I have observed how co-existing with ten women ina house focusing on leadership and change, extracts the very energy and self-love from these women unknowingly. I know firsthand how an unhealthy culture becomes contagious in our communities, leaving us defenseless against the very same that are propagated. These ideas became more salient when I graduated from college and started to work with injecting drug users at a harm reduction center.  The Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center allowed me to connect the academic theory on the subject of women of color to the reality of these women’s lives. Working with largely HIV/HCV positive population this past year, opened my eyes. Most of them were mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters of color.  I became interested in this council because I have a personal stake in eradicating the dehabilitating behaviors associated with my community.  Councils of this nature are imperative to educating our communities about harsh realities of entities such as HIV/AIDS. Despite the horrendous statistics recently compiled by the Black Aids Institute, Black women are continually infected, undiagnosed, living with, or dying from HIV/AIDS at astronomical rates. More shockingly, the rates among black female teens are rising. The CDC states that 70 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases among teens in 2004 were black. Crazy. Statistics like such these should be sufficient to get everyone involved. At that rate, anyone could end up as a statistic.