Essence Magazine gives the scoop of this alarming disparity.

Black women would have to work approximately 731 extra days in order to be paid the same amount as white men. We must #resist the status quo and demand #BlackWomensEqualPay

​Oh Black woman ! Why are you so upset?
Walking around here with your face like that?
What has the world done to you besides hurt you with no regrets?

Some days I feel like I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders and can't pick my head up. Even with that feeling inside, the world still thinks I am angry and stuck up. It hurts to carry this pain and look myself in the face and pretend its okay. I suffer and most times I suffer alone. That is why my face looks like black stone.

Oh black woman! You have always been strong you can think like that because you are wrong. Give it to Jesus ! Say his name! I promise if you believe in him you will change.

What about the times I called on Jesus and Jesus never came. What happened to the time when I said his name and I didn't change. Why cant my feelings be real? Why can't my village help me heal? You want me to get on my knees and pray my pain away. Give it God and still feel the same way?

Oh Black Woman ! Why are you playing victim? Your not suffering your just being weak. You should be grateful you have a place to sleep. You have been doing this for 400 years so why change now? Count your blessings and don't question God. It is a reason your here , your trials make you strong.
​
See thats where your wrong, because depression and anxiety is real and it doesn't make me feel strong. Even when I know things around me are good I still think everything is wrong. I feel like I always hurt the people around me.

​To be continued...

Before being woke was the "it" thing, Jodie Landon from MTV's Daria had her eyes wide open. As an African American teen at Lawndale High, she understood the dynamics of being a minority in a majority white population. She was refined, intelligent, and unapologetically black which is why she is our #WCW!

In May 2008, the US House of Representatives declared July as the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Throughout the month of July, minority mental health awareness advocates and organizations increase public awareness of mental illness among minorities in order for improved access to mental health treatment and services among minorities.

Mental health issues affects 1 in 5 Americans but African American women remain one of the most undertreated groups for depression in the United States. When a black woman suffers from a mental disorder, the opinion is that she is weak. And weakness in black women is intolerable. African-American women experience higher rates of depression than their white female or black male counterparts, but receive lower rates of treatment for depression — specifically adequate treatment due to racial and cultural needs not being met. A 2012 report published by researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that poverty, parenting, racial and gender discrimination put African-American (AA) women — especially low-income AA women — at greater risk for major depressive disorder (MDD). 

A national campaign [is needed] to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans... It's not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible."
​- Bebe Moore Campbell, 2005