Questioning the American Dream: Kendra Davis on Grassroots Advocacy, Black Excellence, and 'Bomb' Lasagna
There are few who are as fierce as Kendra Davis, and this woman embodies what this series is all about: saying “no” to the racism, the red tape, the obstinance that’s gotten us where we are today. She’s a single mom, tax examiner, and community advocate. Through her work with Cohear, a community engagement company connecting decision makers with everyday experts, and Champions of Change, a leadership program for folks seeking to advance Black-led ideas, she’s grown into a fiery voice fighting for grassroots change from within. She laughs when she says she might run for office someday, but this woman has a serious plan, an enormous heart, and more.
Women of Cincy and the Women's Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation are teaming up to bring you six stories spotlighting the economic mobility of Black women in Cincinnati. “Questioning the American Dream: A Look at the Economic Mobility of Black Women in Cincinnati” supports the Women's Fund's “Historical Analysis of Black Women's Labor Trends and Systemic Barriers to Economic Mobility” study.
These are the stories of Black women navigating life in Cincinnati. We believe telling stories changes things; we believe listening changes things. We promised our community we would tell their stories. It's up to you to listen. Visit womenofcincy.org/economic-mobility for the full series.
The following Q&A is based on the interviewee’s firsthand account of their experiences and opinions alone.
Look for editor's notes with additional information in [bold brackets] throughout the article.
Interview by Kristyn Bridges. Photography by Chelsie Walter.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born and raised in Madisonville. I come from a loving, two-parent home. I'm the youngest of four siblings. I graduated from Hughes High School, and I now find myself as a tax examiner with the Internal Revenue Service.
About two years ago, my activism and community engagement began through getting in touch with Dani [Isaacsohn] and Nikita [Anderson] with Cohear and getting involved with the housing strategy project – as well as applying and getting accepted as a Champion of Change for the United Way. I also got invited to the Women's Fund advisory board and since then, I've been trying to make sure I'm involved with my community. I'm a mother to a loving 9-year-old, and that gets me involved with Cincinnati Public Schools. I wear the hats of auntie, mother, cousin, friend, and I continue to just be me.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your work with Cohear and Champions of Change?
I've been able to participate with a lot of Cohear meetings, and I truly appreciate that they facilitate that environment to have higher-ups speak to everyday consumers, whether it was the Metro series, or the series about housing, which was phenomenal. They actually listened and heard that equal housing has to be a real focus here for our local policymakers, and that the average person sometimes can't even afford market rent.
Champions of Change – that was a big jump for me. I didn't quite feel qualified. I attended [Chatfield], but I have yet to graduate. I think I'm like a couple credits short of actually getting my degree. I don't know when I'm going back. [Sighing.] This degree thing is heavy for me. Working and going to school – I know thousands of people do it. Trying to find that balance for myself is a real struggle. So, when it came time to apply for Champions of Change, I had to overcome a little bit of my own discouragement. But I made it. And since then I have been in the room with talented, encouraging, and strong Black individuals of Cincinnati.
To see us come together – you know, Black folks don't all think alike. That was one thing that was great to get in that room. To find middle ground and have intellectual, but progressive, conversation was eye-opening for me.
We had 95 applications submitted, and we're going through a review process. Being able to stick up for someone’s idea that someone else may not think deserves funding is a privilege. Being able to design this process with Black people in mind… A lot of things are done for us but not really done with us in mind. I feel a little bit more powerful. I feel a little more powerful in myself.
What was your biggest takeaway from working on the housing series with Cohear? What stood out for you?
Well, I learned that the term “gentrification” is played out, and we really need to get to the fruit of it. I never thought I'd understand people coming from that “not in my neighborhood” [point of view]. To hear them speak and really hear what they were saying: “We don't want people moving in that don't care”...
With vouchers and low income, there’s a stigma that's been around for generations, but to hear that it's still there and that it's stemming from the fact that you don't know someone… You've never sat in the room. All you have to inform you is the media. We are all human; we are all individuals; we all have values. They may be different, but they are values.
They're not coming to destroy your life. [Laughing.] Everybody deserves and wants a better life. Everybody wants better schools for their kids, equal access to transportation, and quality employment.
Black Cincinnati has really been springing with businesses. Whether it's the T-shirt guy or the food truck gentleman or the store owner or just a lawn care guy, we have a Black Wall Street of sorts within Walnut Hills that shouldn't have to make a choice between being in the hood and being in an economical area that might be better suited for them. I really want us to blend, and I can see why we’re not. What are we going to do?
My father is a former Black Panther; my mother is a follower of Minister Farrakhan, so the whole “readiness to take up the fight of my people” was instilled in me at a young age – but nobody really directed me how to do so. There's channels, there's maneuvers, and sometimes working within the system is also working against the system. You have to be in it to win it.
We have to get to a point in every field – not just medical, not just work, not just education – that everyone is a human being.
I did step away from the housing strategy because I got selected for a meeting and I felt like it was the same old, same old where the bigger voices in the room were going to be heard and the little voices weren't. These people have been at war with each other for years – whether it was P.O.A.H. [Preservation of Affordable Housing], C.M.H.A. [Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority], or LISC [Local Initiatives Support Corporation] – they have been trying to get property in this town that I never even knew of. And to understand how Section 8 works and to understand how these people get tax breaks by selling the property and then that's how you see people get displaced from Section 8 housing… That's the biggest thing I was saying: I want policy. I want policy to say that we're not going to give you a tax break and then let you out of it. [The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is a government program designed to build affordable housing in partnership with the private sector. Since its inception in 1986 the program has turned into an $8 billion industry. Developers are required to keep affordable units “affordable” for 30 years.]
Now, I'm researching and learning and it's like [sighing], “Well first off, y'all done red-taped everything. Nothing can change because this rule says this. Federal and state funding, [sighing] okay, okay.” People's hands are tied is what you're telling me. And “they're trying” is what you're telling me. And the 40,000 [housing units] shortage that we have, what are we coming to? What's the end result? 'Cause I'm hurt. I'm on the ground for this.
I have to say what was great was getting with P.G. Sittenfeld and helping him with the security deposit law that went through. Because if we're not going to be able to really make this fair, if there's so much bureaucracy that comes with having fair housing in our city and state, okay, great. Can we at least get some local laws then?
I'm really starting to become a champion for local. People can live in great cities and live in horrible states. People can live in great states and live in a horrible country. Local matters. It matters so much more than what we let ourselves get distracted by. Federal is federal, but local, I swear to God… Going to vote is so important for me right now. I kind of got caught up in that generation where it didn't really matter. They didn't tell you where to vote when it matters. That the primary matters a lot more than just that presidential election. Knowing who's in your city council matters a lot more. Paying attention and reading an editorial every now again about what they're thinking to do, whether it's a highway, or a road, or construction… You need to know what's going on. [Check out this voter guide to stay up-to-date on elections.]
Have you ever had a hard time finding safe and affordable housing?
[The federal government deems housing “affordable” when a household spends no more than one-third of their income on rent or a mortgage plus utilities.] My daughter and I have lived in C.M.H.A. since she was 1. I can't let her finish out her last years – especially what I consider to be her most influential years – here. Even though my dad is here, my mother is around the corner, my brother is down the street, my connections and my resources are here, I have to show her something different. So, I'm looking, and I really hate this because I just got [online]; I put in “two-bedroom for $800.” But I have to move it up to $1,000 to start seeing something on the East Side. Where are the affordable rents? [An estimated 44,000 lower-income families in Greater Cincinnati are paying over one-third of their income in rent.]
I don't want to have to go from C.M.H.A. into another community such as P.O.A.H. because there's a mindset that exists here. I'm not going to call it unhealthy – it's one that I can say has served me up to this point that I've now outgrown. But, I want to be somewhere that I can afford. I don't want to have to be struggling. That, to me, is not living. No rent should take your check. [Laughing.] That's the real fight on the housing strategy that I wanted somebody to champion: affordable rent throughout Cincinnati, not just in select areas.
How do you think we can better amplify the voices of people affected by housing issues and inequality and the lack of resources? How can those voices make a greater impact in the policy changes?
People have to think about it even when they're not looking. A lot of times people don't really take up something that isn't affecting them, and to do that we have to bring it to the forefront. I don't care if it's the radio or even a P.S.A. where we just begin the discussion, because it has to be had.
Hopefully in having it, we also get some of the landlords here in the city to think about it, as well. A lot of [rental properties] I saw needed income verification, so before you even get to see the place, they want to see your check stubs. And yeah, no landlord should be stuck holding a bill and holding the end of the bargain for bad tenants and people that moved out before their lease and damaged their homes, and I get all that. But are we sure we're not all sharing the same story? Did this really happen to you? Is that your experience? Can we have that conversation? How many bad tenants did you really have? What policies do you think you can set in place to prevent such action? Were you willing to work with them? I got to meet someone that works on eviction through the City Council, and a lot of times it was just simply: The tenant didn't speak to the landlord; the landlord didn't speak to the tenant, and it led to an eviction.
Conversation and communication are so important. We're on Facebook; we're on Twitter; we're on Instagram, but we’re not talking about what really needs to be talked about. Even when we were talking about the housing strategy and the efficiency we have in affordable housing, I'm like, “You don't know the people you didn't count. You didn't count the people that's couch surfing.” [Laughing.] There's some people who have been living with people, or displaced families broken apart because they can't all fit in one person's house. These things have to be taken into consideration. [Hamilton County had 49,757 eviction filings from 2014 through 2017. That’s an average of about 12,000 filings per year, or more than 230 per week.]
What makes a home, a home for you?
I love my daughter, y'all. I swear to God, she is the light of my life. She is so me, it's crazy. I have to realize that she is my mirror. She has so much gumption and spirit. She's the one that thinks I can fix anything. And she is the one who makes me wear my cape. My friends, I have a very supportive group of long-term, know-me friends who also hold the mirror up for me and let me know how great I am when I'm feeling low, and let me know when I need to tone it down, too. [Laughs.] I have my parents. My siblings. Home is not my four walls; home will probably be Cincinnati for me because there isn't a house I can't roll up to or person I can't call, and that's what I love about it. I am truly connected and intertwined with people that make Cincinnati what Cincinnati is to me. It's not furniture; it's not T.V.s. It is the people.
Have you felt supported and valued by your current and previous jobs?
There have been positions in which I’ve faced struggles. I went through my pregnancy while I was at Delta Airlines. I was with them for eight years, and during my pregnancy, I was diagnosed as a manic depressive. Going through that and working and having a child was probably the roughest and darkest period in my whole life. And for most people it's supposed to be happy, so I was struggling to keep that in, you know? Delta had programs like Sedgwick. It was beneficial, and I was able to spend the next three years there.
But what I will say is that Black folks and mental health, we don't get that help as much as we need it. [In 2018, 58.2% of Black young adults 18-25 and 50.1% of adults 26-49 with serious mental illness did NOT receive treatment.] I felt like I struggled to get that support from a medical professional, one that could understand that the way I felt was what made me unable to get through the day. I had seen like three therapists, and I wound up losing my job at Delta because I had exhausted my leave of absence. I struggled; I got on public assistance for the first time. And I really struggled to make peace with my daughter and make peace with motherhood, and I felt like I really lost something at Delta because it kind of defined me as a person. That was a real rough patch for me.
I wound up struggling through like five different jobs, from working at the Kroger Pharmacy call center; I did a stint at AutoZone, Walmart, the Shell gas station, Meijer, and that was a whole three years of my life. And my daughter was just now beginning school, and I was trying to become whole again. I tried to get back into college, went to Chatfield, and my mental state was not right. It was a struggle for me. I'm blessed that I made it through that dark period. And I learned that even if a job has these programs, even if you have the greatest health insurance, it doesn't mean you're going to get connected to the person you may need.
Now working at the I.R.S., I take advantage of everything that comes with those programs. I'm not afraid to call those help lines and I’m not afraid to say it's a bad day and take personal days and use my time correctly. I try not to let myself go into depression. I try to see it, fight it, and deal with it. I'm not taking on more than I can take on; I'm definitely communicating to my managers when the workload is too heavy, or I think I need someone to share the load with me. And I'm honest with my daughter, making sure that she knows that good days and bad days happen.
I can't necessarily say any of my jobs were bad jobs – even the gas station. People, customer service, helping others, that's my heart and that's the work that helps me be active and engaged. But I know that there is some room there for support.
How can jobs better support Black women in the workforce?
Understand that there's some bias that goes on outside of your job that might happen to them and affects them. Trayvon Martin tore me up, and I had to be at work. They had the T.V. on and we were watching C.N.N., and you could see that some people weren't getting it. Boy, I wish I could have had a Black day. You know? I could envision so many of my brothers and my cousins. Things happen in this country and it affects us.
I'm not asking anybody to have white guilt. I'm just asking you to live in my skin, to live in my history, to live outside. I'm blessed because people gave me things. They gave me things like Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask. They gave me things like Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” I was able to feel Tupac’s “Dear Mama,” but some people don't have that, so they might really need to leave [work]. And that person that may not have an hour to leave, they may need you to be able to say, “Hey, today is okay because 365 [days], you're here.”
And that goes to students, too. I am so sick of Cincinnati Public Schools not doing as much as they need to do with these kids dying. Because our children are going through trauma on the daily. As a woman, I feel trauma because all these women keep getting killed. And I want to make it home to my baby every day. You hear me? To me, there’s nothing I can do to make you take my life. There’s nothing you can do to make me want to take your life.
That amount of grief, that amount of mourning that is needed, needs to be understood. And it needs to be looked at from a productivity angle and from an emotional human being angle. Is it better to have this person that’s not here mentally in this room, in this building, in this function, or is it better to let them work on themselves and come back and give you the highest level of production because they know that you care about them?
And I don't want to hear anything about equal opportunity and affirmative action. Because I need someone who is willing to carve out a space for me. This is why I'm all about tangible things, like elections, because somebody better speak for me. That's the biggest change I want to make in life. Decision making and policy making have to get better.
What would more support look like from the healthcare system?
You know, I thought that was great when Serena Williams said something. This woman was scared. This millionaire, who can afford the people that's supposed to give a damn about her losing her life when it was time to have her child. I have cousins that grew up motherless because their mother gave birth to their youngest sibling and then died of pneumonia later. [Ohio is currently ranked as the 26th worst state for maternal mortality, and the Ohio preterm birth rate among African American women is 49% higher than the rate among all other women.]
And this is how you get the Health GAP, right? Health GAP is what is here to help us, but who's teaching them? Who's telling them to look at that person as a person? We're not going to act like there aren't classes for classism. How do you beat it when it's systematic? This is why I'm active and engaged where I am. I try to be ground level with it, grassroots level. Because once you go above, you run into red tape. You run into this thing that they concocted. You telling me I can't destroy this thought and a word? This thought and a word has become this invisible yet very solid barrier.
Everybody deserves and wants a better life. Everybody wants better schools for their kids, equal access to transportation, and quality employment.
We have to get to the point where everyone is equally educated and aware, and everyone has the facts to make their decisions. Because there's too many things – whether it's medical associations that know things are jacked up in the medical field, or it's the schools that are teaching our health professionals, or it's the actual hospitals that want to say they got state and federal funding – that they have to answer to. Take that all away and get to the fact that a human is a human. I am done trying to say Black or white or yellow. We have to get to a point in every field – not just medical, not just work, not just education – that everyone is a human being; everybody has a right to receive a certain amount of education.
I’mma be a real ally. I'm not going to just say I have a Black friend; I’mma act like I have a Black friend. I'm not going to just say I'm cool with white people; I’mma conduct myself like I'm cool with white people. I'm not going to act like race matters; you’re going to see a universal goddess walking when you see me. When you can stick up for someone other than yourself, and someone you love, you’ve mastered life. I love Erykah Badu. She said that there are two things that can exist in this world: love and fear. Love is acceptance; fear is denial. Accept that people are different than you. Accept it. It ain't gonna kill you. It’s not going to stop your cash flow or block food from your mouth. And don't accept it 'cause they're lower than you. Truly believe that no one is lower or above you, boo. And then deny everything formed against you, against someone else. You don't have to live that “you're stupid”; you don't have to live that “you're ignorant”; you don't have to live that “you can't”; you don't have to live that “you shouldn't”; you don't have to live that “you won't be able to.” Don't live that.
Why do you feel it’s important for the Black community to become more self-sustainable? What would that look like?
I'm so happy you asked that because I have a plan and this is how I see the plan:
One, I believe that we start with infrastructure – we have none. I want us to get slick with it. I want to start buying property up, left to right. Then I want to train people to renovate it. Rehab is the way to go. We're going to train our workforce. That means straight out of jail, 18 [years old]. Don't want to go to college? Okay, let's get you some skills. Then we need to aggressively buy lots. We need to go back to farming. Used to be a time when everybody had a garden and everybody knew how to grow their food. 'Cause now you're in control of two things: Now you have a land on which to make a stand, and you have the ability to control the food that you eat. You are now in control of new resources.
Secondly, stay within the public schools. Did you know that Walnut Hills was a part of the Black Cincinnati school system before it entered the Cincinnati Public School system? And that its curriculum is still studied today? Do you understand what greatness we are here in Cincinnati? I want to rep that. I want to be Black excellence. Certified with it. Let's make Cincinnati Public Schools work for us even if they didn't intend to. These neighborhood schools? I want us in them, running them, walking these kids to school, walking them home; I want us talking to these teachers. I want us to figure out why we don't have Pan-Africanism in the curriculum when over 60% of your students are Black.
I want us at the City Council meetings. I want a force that's felt. I want people that can get on one page and one accord and realize that no matter our differences – gay, straight, I don't care if you're a father of 16 kids and 16 baby mommas. Get on the page of Black excellence and success. Because it was here before, which means it can be here again.
We have been successful. We can do it. It takes for us to be united, and some of these old heads in the community need to really make room for somebody they didn't groom. A lot of y'all don't make room for new power because you want the people that you groomed to be in that power, and that's just not the way it goes. Move over, make room, okay? Don't think that your way is the only way, okay Black Cincinnati? Let's own some stuff. Ownership is power. Own it, rebuild it, grow it, sell it, educate, and go ahead and elevate. That's my goal. I'll probably run here in 10 years, y'all.
From your experience in school to the experience that your 9-year-old is now having, have you felt supported by the education system? What are some things that can be improved?
My daughter had her first Black teacher last year. [Between 35 and 50% of teachers in the segregated South were Black prior to Brown v Board of Education. Integration closed many Black schools and Black educators were fired or demoted in the aftermath. Today, 7% of teachers and 11% of principals are Black.] And that was what was the biggest difference for me, because I went to Anderson Place and we pretty much had two white teachers. But it's North Avondale; it kind of makes me wonder about putting her in a magnet school to make sure that she gets the best education Cincinnati Public Schools can offer at the time versus having her deal with some culture shocks. Teachers don't quite understand things. She was called a coal baby – not by a white student, but by a Black student. And when I came to speak to them about it, it was as if, 1. They didn't know that it transpired, and 2. Colorism in 2018? Why does a second grader give a damn about what color y'all are?
That's what made me need the school to have Pan-Africanism and maybe take a different approach on slavery, ’cause baby girl broke down going to the Underground Railroad Museum. And the teacher called me to tell me she held her hand, and this is a Caucasian teacher explaining to my baby this. And then she wanted to know if her grandpa was a slave. That was second grade for her. Do y'all really be taking these babies down here this young? And at first I thought it was cool; I signed the permission slip, but then it's like, “She's not ready for that.” It's all about how it's introduced to her.
And now she's in fourth grade and she's sick of it. "I don't want to learn about slavery" – that's literally what she told me. And she literally flunked. And it kind of upset me like how did you fail this paper? She did not want to hear about it again. From second grade to fourth grade, she was tired of it. And she wanted to know why they don't talk about who really invented the lightbulb. And how come they don't talk about anything else in Black History Month.
Help her understand that education matters, and help her be who she is within a school system where everyone may come from different socioeconomic levels and people's parents and houses and everything may be different. Her teachers love her and hate her at the same time. They love her because she's intelligent, articulate. They hate her 'cause she's sassy. Like I said, she is my reflection. [Laughs.]
What do you think is the greatest obstacle in accessing childcare?
I actually incomed out while I was working at Delta. [To be initially eligible for child care assistance, a household’s monthly income cannot exceed 130% Federal Poverty Level. The ongoing eligibility income limit is 300% FPL. The subsidy covers the full cost of child care until the household’s income reaches 105% FPL. From 105% FPL to 300% FPL, the subsidy amount gradually decreases as the household’s income increases. FPL at 100% for a 2 person household is $16,460 annually. FPL at 300% for 2 people is $49,380.]
I was blessed because my daughter was only seven months away from starting kindergarten. And Ms. Peggy from Y.M.C.A. childcare will always have my heart, because she let me continue to pay only what the state said I had to pay. So she didn't take me to $250. For seven months she let me pay $62/week for my baby's daycare. I couldn't have paid $250/week, and I needed her so that I could go to work. And then some people have been telling me that some places are $500/week. And then imagine people with multiple children.
A lot of times people don't really take up something that isn't affecting them, and to do that we have to bring it to the forefront.
I believe that childcare is fundamental. Daycares provide safe educational places for children to go to. Boys and Girls Club provides that place; Cincinnati Recreation Center provides that place. A big asset in the Black community – that nobody wants to give credit to – is the library. A lot of our kids don't go to daycare when they get past a certain age, and guess who becomes daycare? If I hit the lotto, I would donate money to the library for after-school programs because y'all been doing it for free. If you're a council member or somebody here, support the library. Send them some money. Etch out some additional funds. The library is literally raising our youth.
Also, C.Y.C. [Cincinnati Youth Collaborative], getting some of these youth through employment, once they get to that age. Gotta do that because idle hands are the devil's playground. I don't want to see as many kids die this summer as died last summer. [In 2019, 25 kids were shot in the city of Cincinnati.] I really need people to realize they're babies. Stop getting mad at this kid, 'cause you don't know what that kid went through today. Don't sit up here and try to fight a kid; don't argue with a kid; show that kid love. You might be the only one that did it today.
Look at the Black family as a whole. Stop isolating us and only fixing one thing; that's why we're not being fixed. You want to fix the children? Cool, but they still gotta go home to that negative momma and daddy. You want to fix the momma and daddy? Cool. But are you fixing them and letting their children know that their momma and daddy is working on themselves? Because sometimes you gotta tell them that. Kids aren’t stupid; they just need to be a part of the process. If you can, go a generation back and fix their grandma that's still going to tell them negative shit because Grandma never got fixed. I need multigenerational solutions out here.
And realize that Black people are living under terrrorism. Just accept it. We are living under terrorism in this country and it affects us on so many levels. When you question why I do what I do, don't get mad that you don't understand my explanation. I need some understanding to be given to the Black community. To understand why our things happen multigenerationally. Grandma never got fixed, so Mother couldn't get fixed, so the baby got broken.
And while I'm 100% pro reparations – and I wouldn't dare be on this interview and not say it – I also understand that we need policy reparations. We need housing reparations. We need neighborhood reparations. We need banking reparations. I'm not saying necessarily run out there and cash some checks. This has to be restructured just like it was supposed to be after the Civil War, and it didn't go down. Nobody wants to talk about the fact that Reconstruction didn't happen the way it was meant to. We have to reconstruct the Black community. And that is Kendra's 2020-whatever plan that she'll be running on: the Black community reconstruction plan.
How do you feel we assign value to jobs? Are we assigning the right amount of value to jobs in our city?
COVID should have taught people a lot, and I hope they learn from it. You should value that worker at McDonald's. You should value that worker at Walmart. You should value that person at C.V.S. You should value that person that's there for $8 to $9, putting in 10-plus hours for you. We have to start looking at what decides what a person's worth in a job. “Decision-makers need all the money because they think.” We are paying some people a dumb amount of money to do little to nothing, and then the people that break their backs get mesothelioma, and they’re the first to contract corona, they die picking your food because they were exposed to pesticides. It's time for us to stick up for those people.
Give these people some more money. Fifteen minimum wage; I don't care if it means they’re making just $2 less than me. Ain’t you surviving with what you got? Are you really going to be mad that somebody else wants to survive, too? I don't want to be in a lifeboat with anybody that becomes an “I” in a world that should be filled with “we.” I'm about “we the people, we the republic.” I'm about “united we stand; divided we fall.” So I can't keep dealing with your “I, I, I, I.” Go be a hermit; there's enough woods left. Go do that.
What do you do for joy? What really brings you joy?
I'm chunky; I like to bake. I like to cook. I make a bomb “Garfield would devour it” lasagna. People request buffalo chicken dip – the easiest thing you can make but they say mine is pretty great. Might be a politician and a chef, because I always want to feed the hungry.
Taking walks in nature. I love that to reground, and to remember it's bigger than me. I have a nephew on his way, so I'm excited. I have a great-niece and she's about to be 1. I just take joy in the fact that I'm living, and life is to be had, and choices are to be made and to feel empowered. Even though sometimes the darkness still comes around me, I've learned to find beauty in my darkness. Joy is very easily found for me in the littlest things.
What are your three greatest strengths?
I am a Leo. [Laughs.] So, I roar like a lion. That earthly and universal connectedness I have that I I didn't know what it was but now accept – I get it now. Knowing myself. Embracing that my name actually means “the knowing woman.” Accepting myself, being a woman – that is just phenomenal. Accepting that I am the storm. That was probably the breakthrough.
And then I would say the fact that God gifted me with the gift of gab. You might intimidate me at times because I think I don't have enough doctors or degrees behind my name, but I'm well-read and I got confidence in that and I'm going to speak my mind and listen. I learned that you can't listen and speak at the same time.
And then love. I am a being of love. I want everybody to win. I want everybody to succeed. I can't hate nobody whether you be Black or white or purple. Loving me means having to understand history, that at one point in time everybody in this world had a chance to be a tyrant. And to understand that love is a duality; it's a thing to love somebody into completion and to love somebody enough to tear something down, too. Being loving, being myself, and being able to speak, those are the three things that I think are my strongest and most authentic traits that I have.
Tell us about an influential woman in your life.
I would have to say my mother. My mother is one strong Black woman that came from a strong Black woman. She embodied that her whole life. From being 16 and giving birth the day before her mother gave birth to twins, to watching her mother die and raising her siblings, to marrying my father, a man who had his own unstable mental health and background issues… Not only being a wife but a mother to him, but also being there for my sister when I was 5 and gifted a niece, making sure that she was there for her daughter and her sister who wound up giving birth to a baby boy that same year… To being the actual cornerstone of a family. The matriarch. And having to be so from a young age.
People talk about my mother and her love and ability. My house was filled on weekends and though my mother and father struggled – 'cause I'm not gone tell you everything was great – family was first. She divorced my dad, and I saw her live her life as herself. As a child having to go through divorce, I had animosity towards my mother. But then to become a grown woman and be able to talk to my mother and understand that you cannot be a good mother and not put yourself first... And we don't teach ourselves that. My mother couldn't stand by me when I made my decisions that I had to make if she didn't stand up for herself. Her strength is just so big and so massive that I can only give praise to the Most High and the ancestors for making her my mom.
Continue exploring “Questioning the American Dream: A Look at the Economic Mobility of Black Women in Cincinnati” at womenofcincy.org/economic-mobility.