by Kwanzaa Imani


Being a black woman with a disability is a lonely endeavor—particularly if you’re like me, with a disease coded as being exclusive to “minorities,” and therefore not plastered across billboards, funded by races, and publicized to the country as an important illness. I was born with sickle cell anemia. To a younger me, it felt as though not even other black people knew of its existence. Because of this, I would wish I could trade my disease for one of the more “popular” ones like leukemia, because people would know I exist and know how to fix me. But what I discovered recently is that this sentiment is not just my own, nor is it exclusive to sickle cell patients (Sicklers). As it turns out, black women with disabilities in general are the least aided and supported in the country. And while some of you may not be surprised by this, it did come as a surprise to me.

by Jamille Fields


April is National Minority Health month, and it is far past time for our elected officials to implement policies to improve Black women’s health. As a Black woman, I want to see something done to eliminate the health inequities that plague us, our families, and our community. As a public health professional, I recognize that expanded health care access can go a long way toward improving individuals’ health. As a lawyer, I know that politicians, currently, have in their hand an opportunity to make such a change. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law as an attempt to expand healthcare access to the nearly 50 million Americans who were uninsured at the time. Five years later, some states are still playing political football with implementing the law.

by Oni J. Blackstock, MD, MHS and Kimberleigh J. Smith, MPA

by Altheria Gaston


The recent measles outbreak that is purported to have started at Disneyland in December 2014 and has affected at least 155 individuals has re-sparked an already heated controversy about the risks and benefits of vaccinations. Since the 1998 publication of a medical journal research paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism—a paper that was established to be fraudulent and was later retracted—there has been growing public interest in vaccinations. Perhaps the most recognizable face of the anti-vaxx movement is Jenny McCarthy, who once claimed that vaccinations cause autism but now proclaims that she is not an anti-vaxxer. But McCarthy is just one of many mothers on the forefront of the anti-vaccination movement.