Breathe Easy, You've Found Me ((HUGS))
People will wonder why this blog is needed, why minority midwifery student? It's very simple actually; I was looking for this blog...but I couldn't find it...so I created it. We all have unique experiences, and every experience, every story, can help someone else. I am a black girl from the hood at an ivy league professional school. That, alone, is reason enough to write. Somebody was looking for this blog. Someone wanted proof that what I'm doing can be done - even when you come from where we come from.
To that person especially, WELCOME.
3 comments:
The funny thing is, to others a person of color is a person of color. We must have all shared the exact same experiences as all of our other people of color right? Or others can go the other way...Oh you're not like those other black people...this baffles me. What upsets me more is the response of "my people." Because of my background or what they think they know about my background they form barriers or make me jump through hoops to prove my "blackness". I feel like all my life I have been too black to have been white, but I just haven't been black enough to be validated by "my people" We have to overcome this in order to serve everyone...it is a two way battle, individuals on both sides need to compromise in order truly uplift the ENTIRE race and eventually dissolve the healthcare disparities of today.
I've heard this exact comment from one of my friends at school! The barriers came after we knew eachother though; it was more of a "why doesn't she feel the same way I feel about this issue?" And then it became apparent that it's because of the economic differences. I think it's important that brown people, regardless of socioeconomic differences, provide a unified front, and that's what we do at my school. In private we can argue over the details, but at school we try to be on the same page.
I told my friend she doesn't have to prove herself to me or anyone else, but I admit it's hard to be friends with me if you're not aware of your blackness and how it affects your identity. I just don't have time to convince anyone that racism exists and it's happening to you, and I refuse to spend too much of my time around racist people of any color, even if those people are your friends or you grew up in the same community with them.
And you're right, it works both ways - just as some can feel "not black enough" because of how lower income black people treat them, lower income blacks can feel "too ghetto" because of how upper class blacks react to them.
yes, yes, write. write.
obviously I'm not the only one that needs to hear your words.
Is it disrespectful to ask to be taught more about racism? I have read so much about white privilege yet I feel insecure about asking more.
(like somehow someone is going to jump my shit - and what's even more ironic is those are the people that actually open me up)
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