The even I attended was a presentation led by a professor here on campus named Yolanda Clarke. Her topic was “Black feminist thought and the heath disparities of black women at predominantly white colleges and universities”. I had taken a class with her last semester “Health disparities of the underserved” and I learned a lot from not only her class but also her as person. In the beginning of her presentation, she took time to acknowledge Dr. Antionette Candia-Bailey, an academic administrator at Lincoln university who committed suicide due to mental illness and she believes it could have been prevented if the campus had the resources she needed. She starts with the minority stress theory and explains that the theory is about the stress and experiences that members of disadvantaged groups go through that differ from the dominant culture; white. She talks about 5 social determents that give people stress. Those are economic stability, educational access/equity, healthcare access/equity, neighborhood environment and social community. These are the 5 attachments we have in our life because of our different development and experiences. I did not go through the same experiences as Beneatha did. Yes, it is a different timeline but there are people today that are still going through the same inequality and family issues as her. Clarke then brings up black girl magic. A term a lot of ladies growing up learned to be that smart, beautiful and creative woman. What are the health disparities a black woman might experience? They are stereotyped and are overall at a culture disadvantage. Because of this they have higher rates of sickness, poverty, unemployment, criminalization, divorce, infant mortality, and homelessness. I would say stereotyping is the biggest issue. Stereotyping is having a set belief of a group/culture and associating it with each person of that group. We are all different, we are all our own individuals.
The room had students and faculty listening in. What I found comforting was that these two women sitting in front of me were staff in the health department here in Cortland and they wanted to know ways to promote the wellness of black women. They listen to Clarke and also asked questions. Clarke explained multiple ways to promote the wellness of black women on campus. To highlight a few, she talked about increasing the presence in numbers on campus. That includes students AND staff. She felt that having mentors in each department would show students that the school is culturally open and acknowledges the different backgrounds. She proposed that there should be a course here on campus that teaches black feminist thought every semester through the Africana studies department. The last thing that I think she purposely meant to leave in her final words of the presentation was that siloism does not work. It didn’t make sense for these two women in the health department to come to this presentation, learn new methods of opening up for black women and for them to not share this information. You want all of your students to feel welcome and recognized in every department. We cannot be a culturally diverse campus if we do not support ALL of our students and faculty
