Speak Up Black Women, No Matter What!

I am more than a Black woman; I am more than a person you use to prop next to you like a vase on a table filled with water that makes the room look great! I am not a token piece, I am a human being with a voice, a human being who has feelings that matter to me and so many other Black women out there.

I am more than a Black woman who lives with HIV, I am a daughter, a sister, a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, and a friend to many who value who I am.

I have never lived my life playing the race card and I see every human being as one until it is proven wrong to me. I never judge others by someone else's perspective. As a rule, I judge every man and woman based on how they treat me. So, speaking up about how I feel means voicing what matters when it doesn't feel good.

Don't hold in your truth for others

It is our right as Black women and as young Black girls; we must never hold in our truth for others' sake to make them feel comfortable. Never be afraid to shout your presence and never let anyone make you feel bad for doing so.

When you voice your issues, and they are looked over please do not hide your utterness from anyone because you’re not supposed to help them feel okay. Remember they say they love you until you speak the truth that hides in them, the truth they want no one to know, the truth they can’t admit because they chose not to see it.

If they don’t see it, then your feelings don’t matter (as a Black woman) because you are not supposed to matter. How can what they feel matter more than what you feel? Funny right? You are just a Black woman, a Black woman playing the race card, but it’s a card that our white counterparts do not want to admit.

Being vocal about our HIV community

I constantly speak about our HIV community and how I used to feel alone living with HIV for 18 years of my life. Then I thought I found a loving community. If that’s the case, why do I still feel so secluded?

I know that I am not the only one who feels this way, this is why I move along the way that I do (by myself) to reach the folks that need to be reached. The work I was guided to do matters most but when you feel like a tiny fish in a big ocean that can’t be seen or heard something is wrong.

When you know you have fought every moment to do this HIV work and they don’t care. My thoughts and emotions matter today and every day. I know everything flows right into place when we do things through love and passion.

I will NEVER stop doing what I was created to do. Not by anyone. I will speak about how I feel; if no one likes it, it’s their issue, not mine.