“You have to have love for your sisters and your fellow human beings”
When I think about being different I think about how being marginalized in the ways that I have been has caused me to be an activist in certain ways. I’m a black, queer woman. There’s always going to be a reason why someone thinks that I’m not as good as them. My mom, she always told me, as I was growing up, that I had to be 10 times as good as anybody else to get as far as they are going to get. And I think that is so true. People aren’t going to take you seriously, first of all when you’re a woman and second of all when they see the color of your skin.That’s really what I strive to do. I have to be 10 times as good. I strive to get the highest GP in the class, to do those extra activities like leadership positions because I know that I need to excel. I need to super duper excel to make it. On top of that I am an activist. I canvas for human rights. I make sure that people are aware of the issues that are going on, that they’re aware that there is police brutality, that black people are getting killed. I make sure that they know that people are being forced into homelessness in Syria.
I know I want someone to stand up for my rights so I want to stand up for everybody else’s rights too.
It’s inspired me to want to stand together with my fellow black women. I feel like we have a bond that is very very important. I feel like it’s very easy for me to make friends with other black women because we have that spiritual connection. We are on the bottom rung together and we’re stylin’, and we’re feeling ourselves and we’re killing it together and that is the most beautiful thing.
Sometimes I look at pictures of me and my friends and I get emotional. Like wow, we’re so beautiful and we’re so full of love for each other and everybody in this world. You have to have love for your sisters and your fellow human beings.
I had a big raccoon that I named Meeko because I loved Meeko from Pocahontas. I’m still mad at my mother to this day because when we moved out of my childhood home she threw away my stuffed animal.
He was bigger than me so he was a very good pillow. It was always about comfort, having something to hug and hold. Sort of a friend. It’s always beautiful to have someone always there for you.