Plainfield, New Jersey, is a moderately small town located south of New York City. Part of Union county, it has a population of 50,000 with a 70 million dollar operating budget. It’s the hometown of my soror and linesister, Annie McWilliams. A young Black woman who ran for the city council in 2008 at the […]
6 Surprising Reasons Black Girls Need Our Stories
I sat in a room with ten other Black women retelling stories about the challenges of collective work with other women; the personal struggles to balance our needs with the demands of our families and friends; and the importance of support for our impending journey. This discussion, a teamwork activity, prepares us as Girl Exchange […]
The Shocking Truth About Black Women in Politics
As Black women hold significant spending and political influence today, we remain under-represented in key leadership positions in corporate and political organizations. According to a report released in June 2014 entitled, Status of Black Women in American Politics, we drive spending of 85 cents to every dollar in the Black community; we are 58.6% of the voters in Black […]
How Black Women Can Embrace Our Expertise and Make Our Voices Heard
Feature on ForHarriet.com Leaders at the Op-Ed Project asked me and thirteen other women to introduce ourselves with this statement: “I am an expert in…” The reactions of participants’ discomforts range from verbal resistance of the “patriarchal notion” of expertise to stammering over one’s words: “I am not going to brag; I am too young to […]