My WorK With
Global Citizen
Global Citizen is a worldwide nonprofit organization that hopes to end Global Poverty by 2030. With 372K followers on Twitter, the organization has raised over $37.9 billion for human rights. They also host the Global Citizen Festival each year which has attracted the likes of Beyoncé, Michelle Obama, Katie Holmes, Cardi B, Janet Jackson, MSNBC, and more. I worked on their editorial team where I wrote daily articles about social justice and advocacy.
This Mom Died Delivering Her Child After Waiting Seven Hours for Medical Care
"We walked in for what we expected to be the happiest day of our life. And we walked straight into a nightmare," Charles Johnson V recently told 11alive, an NBC affiliate, on Oct. 19.
Johnson was describing the day he unexpectedly lost his wife, two years ago, during childbirth. Now he’s an advocate for better maternal health care, particularly for black women in the US, and speaking out about pregnancy-related deaths.
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Kira Johnson waited seven hours for emergency medical assistance in extreme pain, shaking and crying, according to 11alive. She eventually died from post-childbirth complications, and although her death is devastatingly personal to her family, her story is tragically common.
This Ebola Survivor Delivered a Healthy Baby During One of the Worst Outbreaks in History
Amid the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, an Ebola survivor delivered a healthy baby girl named Sylvana on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Associated Press.
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"She is in good health and is not infected with Ebola," said the Health Ministry in a statement to the AP.
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Over 580 people are currently suffering from Ebola in what has become the Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst outbreak in history, More than 383people have died in the outbreak, which exceeds the county’s death toll during the Ebola outbreak of 2013, the worst recorded outbreak in the region, which ultimately killed more than 11,000 people across several countries in West Africa.
Why the Fight for Women's Rights Must Include Women of Color
While the goal of the Women’s March has been to achieve gender equality for all women, the reality is that all women do not face the same issues and inequalities. Race, ethnicity, and religion are often left out of discussions surrounding gender equality, and that minimizes and ignores the issues that women of color and women from other marginalized groups face.
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Black women’s bodies, livelihoods, and opportunities have been policed for decades. Black women make 61 cents for every dollar that a white man makes, which is a larger gap than the one for white women. More than 4 in every 10 black women will experience domestic violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes. And black mothers are 243% more likely than white mothers to die from pregnancy-related complications.
New York City Is Making 'Hair Discrimination' Illegal
Though it may sound ridiculous for someone to be fired for wearing their hair as it naturally grows, that’s the reality many black women face in the workplace.
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Black women are twice as likely to feel pressure to straighten their hair in the workplace than white women, according to a study by the Perception Institute. Despite being from different racial backgrounds, most of the surveyed participants showed an implicit bias against black women with natural hair.
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“Bias against the curly textured hair of people of African descent is as old as this country and a form of race-based discrimination,” said First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray, the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a statement.
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Despite this, there is no legal precedent in federal law that protects people from discrimination on the basis of their textured or cultural hairstyles.
This Fashion Campaign Breaks The Mold With an All-Asian Cast of Models
Prabal Gurung is taking a stand against the lack of diversity in fashion with his new ad campaign “Stronger in Color.” The Nepalese-American designer’s fall fashion campaign highlights an all-Asian cast of models and a majority Asian crew.
The casting allows for greater representation of Asian models in the fashion industry by celebrating women of the Eastern hemisphere
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“I’ve always believed in the power of visual representation,” he told HuffPost. “Growing up, I never saw someone who looked like me represented in Hollywood films or fashion photos in a desirable and glamorous way (or really represented at all to be honest.) I want to change this.”