Menah Pratt的动态

Her friends said: "She was still smiling." Our smiles do not mean we are OK. https://krcgtv.com/news/local/emails-surface-from-lus-vp-of-student-affairs-sent-the-day-she-died-by-suicide

This story broke my heart. Dr. Candia-Bailey suffered the same fate as Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor and countless others. Her “tormenter” was law enforcement disguised as a University President. They come in all forms (VPs, Senior Directors, HR, CEOs). We care the most so we feel the most. It is not natural for us to prioritize our sanity because we have been conditioned to put everyone else first. We know that when we prioritize our mental health personally or professionally, other people create narratives and we are either “labeled” or “selfish”. I am Dr. Candia-Bailey. We are all Dr. Candia-Bailey. After five years of pure hell, the universe intervened before I too was a face on a screen with dates under my picture. Prioritizing your sanity and mental health is an act of self-love. Thank you Dr. Menah Pratt. I accept your challenge. I will now unapologetically prioritize my sanity and put myself first “as a radical act of societal defiance”.

So very sad. Keeping colleagues and family members in thought. Supporting all areas of support, this is why we wrote this... Citation Essed, P.?and?Carberry, K.?(2020), "In the Name of Our Humanity: Challenging Academic Racism and its Effects on the Emotional Wellbeing of Women of Colour Professors",?Majors, R.,?Carberry, K.?and?Ransaw, T.S.?(Ed.)?The International Handbook of Black Community Mental Health, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 61-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-964-920201005

I recently walked into an organisation's reception and the white lady at reception asked me if I had come to clean. I raised a complaint which was dismissed as a moment of "bad judgment". You say: "Black women are often holding on by threads.?Our jobs are trying to shred us; tear us down; humiliate; and dehumanize us.?Yet, we are trying to hold on and sometimes we can’t." This touched me to my core. I know very, very dear and amazingly talented black women who are being torn down, humiliated and dehumanised as we speak - but we continue to hold on. I have heard of some black women who have left their jobs, not to move to another company, but because they need to rebuild themselves, regain their confidence after being torn down, humiliated and dehumanised.

"Black women are often holding on by threads. Our jobs are trying to shred us; tear us down; humiliate; and dehumanize us." That part. We are not okay. Thank you Menah Pratt for sharing the hard truth, this sad story, and creating paths to healing.

This is heartbreaking. Your passing has triggered me in a most profound way. I was in a very dark place in 2021 and had thoughts of suicide due to severe bullying. Back then I had my sister who is a Minister to support me, but since being triggered by your passing - ?? I have started professional therapy as of yesterday, and I have you to thank for that. Rest well my sister.

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

I am a certified Master Life Coach, stress management expert, and a lawyer. But before I was any of that things I was (and still am) a dark skinned black woman and know all too well what it is like to feel unheard! I had a job where I was one of very few black people at a company where I was sexually harassed by a good ole boy who everyone loved. I repeatedly reported it to my managers for years and they did nothing. After he threatened to anally rape me - at the top of his lungs in the office in front of witnesses who remained silent - I made a report to the company’s lawyer. He was fired the next day. Seemed like a win but since it exposed the fact that I had been complaining for years, I was the directly reporting to two people who were pissed a ME “for making them look bad.”! Looking for another job didn’t even cross my mind because like too many black women, I was groomed to be a MULE! I believed that I could take it. That I should take it. That I “needed” that high paying job. Even though I was a Christian I never considered praying for God to provide another job or rearrange things where I worked. Sharing all the above to say that it is TIME for black women to start REJECTING the attitudes we once needed for survival…