A Black Woman's Perspective - The American Dream

I can't actually say what is the

American dream for me like I can't get

that

[Music]

out I can't get it out because I can't

believe that there's such a thing as a

possibility even of what I hope

for to say it out loud would make it

real like I believe that way like I

speak something into reality and I can't

get it out

so that tells

me there's something really really deep

here about this I know the work I

understand the work I can do the work

I've been doing the work I want to stay

here and continue to do the work but I'm

having difficulty to speak out loud a

dream for a better future or an end to

this or even a slight even a slight

mitigation of this like that's so hard I

can't get the

words without the emotion coming in the

way that's a nice baby Ken we're

good hold your girl and say by the way

let me show you this what this is what

happened

right we're looking for we expect of you

I see that to get to that point to make

my dream come true would be I would need

to and I I intend

to continue to share oneon-one with

women it's an opportunity to offer them

a chance to speak I feel like different

races have different options

African-American women get treated

different totally different it shouldn't

matter of what type of insurance you

have everyone should be treated the same

way and with the same care with the

knowledge that I have about from the

first delivery I don't think that I'd be

more comfortable at a hospital I wanted

a natural bir because I feel like that

bring me closer closer to my baby every

time I went for an appointment it felt

like I was being treated like a medical

[Music]

[Applause]

condition I have a

dream that my four little children

will one day live in a nation where they

will not be judged by the color of their

skin but by the content of their

character I have a dream

today the history of black women in this

country is still to this day playing out

and the legacy of the negativity of that

history in so many areas but especially

in surrounding their health continues to

this day to plague us to PL plague women

and their

[Music]

families I've only been here 25 years

but I am a black woman myself and so I'm

living the experience of being a black

woman in America we know the impact of

slavery on women's health posts slavery

lack of access to healthc care or

Healthcare Providers lack of providers

who would service women of color being

relegated in hospitals to basements or

back entrances having different types of

care having

institutionalized approaches to how

black women might be treated different

to white women that Legacy continues

even in modern day lack of choice lack

of empowerment and this plays out

continually

we see it in the statistics we know that

if you are black if you are

African-American you are likely to have

a higher percentage of any ill you could

name it it could be any cancer it could

be heart disease of biggest concern and

interest to me is maternal health and

child health we see decade after decade

of Statistics that show

disproportionately two times three times

four times as many black women have

having worse outcomes as far as their

maternity

[Music]

care that in and of itself speaks to how

important it is how necessary it is for

the change to come another way clearly

whatever efforts have been put towards

doing something about it have not worked

don't you want pain medicine I'm like if

you have the best midwife

that's your pain

[Music]

medicine with my first born I basically

went into a hospital and the experience

was detrimental it was not something

that it would be glorious like you want

to show

everybody I went to another hospital

with my second child and the nurse was

crazy it was it was so bad when I was

ready to push she told me I didn't sign

up for this you need to hold on until we

find a doctor to get you and I don't

know how to hold so when I'm ready to

push it's more like let's go they

already knew I was 10 cm so they should

have already had everything pre- ready

they didn't have nothing ready by the

time the doctor walked in I was past

shoulders so they already broke the bed

down meaning baby could have fall out

and hit the

[Music]

floor and then my daughter when I had

her went to the hospital again same

thing when it was time to go up to Le

delivery I couldn't because I started

crowning it was hard to sit down on the

wheelchair so of course policies so I

forced myself to sit down while I'm

crowning which was like completely

uncomfortable when we got to labor and

delivery of course I'm screaming for

medicine at this point they told me I

couldn't the nurse there I don't know if

it was out of spider anger she purposely

gave me medication after delivery

after that what was the point now I

can't even hold my daughter my daughter

is sitting there crying they're trying

to give it to me but now I'm dazed out

because of the

[Music]

medication and so of course that made me

extremely upset that's when I realized I

never going to have another hospital

birth

again it was so hard for me to grasp the

concept of why a HP Hospital who

receives plenty of money to make someone

feel comfortable having a baby make you

feel so

uncomfortable I feel like different

races have different options because

we're not educated enough or we don't

educate oursel enough we end up just

accepting what someone tells us without

doing research or without asking

multiple Doctors Without just finding

out what else can I do besides this one

option that's been thrown in my face and

told me nothing else can

[Music]

work I think it's more of the

[Music]

power if you ask the doctor is it safe

to go to goodwife their answer will

always be

[Music]

no because they don't have the equipment

if something goes wrong and they're

they're using the scare Factor just to

make sure at the end of the day it's all

about

money you could go to Midwife and a

doctor and have your child the same

exact way but who gets more money so

when a doctor knows okay a midwife is

going to take my bread and butter he's

of course going to use a scare factor to

keep you from going and most people say

I'm too scared to go to Midwife because

I can't do natural well how do you know

what you cannot do until it's time and

you will be surprised at the things you

can do you can do where's your shoes

she put her shoes on before she hits

that

water it don't let her trity to please

are you

Mar the American

dream I I don't know what that really

means anymore because

American dream in your head you're

thinking okay you go to school you

become someone of importance and you

know you make money you have a family

living stability is just right you have

the pick and white fence that's a

dream why are you

crying the American reality is you could

have I'm I'm on my masters and that

don't mean nothing in America with me

having seven children it's like people

frown upon that like why would you have

seven kids because last time I checked

it's my body and I could do exactly what

I want to do with it if I wanted to have

20 or capable of having 20 I would push

for 20 but in America you're not allowed

to be what you really want to I mean

it's like here's society setting of you

and either you're you're poor and you

stay poor you're rich you stay rich but

anything in between you're not allowed

to have an opinion you're not allowed to

make a statement you're not allowed to

you know express

yourself so the American dream

there no such thing it's no such thing I

haven't seen it I haven't and because

someone will say well why don't you just

go to school and get a degree well I

have a degree that don't mean nothing it

doesn't matter if I was an RN or a

doctor working in a doctor's office if

my lifestyle was already given to me

then I'm stuck with it takes one angry

moment to make you or force you into

making decisions that you thought you

would never be able to make