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Every couple of months or so, we hear the same old story: another Black woman's life has been put at risk because a medical provider didn’t take her health concerns seriously. Whether you’re the greatest tennis player of all time or a mom from California making a modest living, it’s the same. Time and time again we see the impact of the medical system failing Black women and not giving them the support or resources that they need to take control of their health and body.
The Upspoken campaign was created through a grant from The California Wellness Foundation to raise awareness about and address the rising rates of HIV/AIDS and STIs that disproportionately impact Black women. Nationally, Black women are three times more likely than white women to be diagnosed with HIV, yet there are almost no resources that speak to Black women directly about how to have safer sex, initiate important conversations with their partners, and advocate for themselves in the doctor's office. Upspoken meets Black women where they are, using culture and empowering messages, to encourage Black women to prioritize their health and wellbeing – particularly their sexual health because it’s not enough to list alarming statistics and tell us we’re going to die. The campaign challenges the taboos and stigmas around sex within the Black community that keep Black women from talking openly about their sex lives, risk factors, and their health.
With the recent launch of RoyalTea, a trauma-informed five-chapter (or five “sip”) sexual health tool made for Black women by Black women, we hope to reach a multi-generational audience online and offline, energizing Black women in California and beyond to act as advocates in their health and to prioritize their sexual health needs. RoyalTea is a result of three years of research and community-building with Black women across California via Upspoken’s social media channels and website. The name RoyalTea fuses culturally relevant terms, recognizing that Black women have a rich power that is “royal,” and that they like to share the “tea,” a culturally relevant metaphor for sharing information amongst a group. RoyalTea shares tips for the empowerment of all Black women in relationships, love and sex, and includes self-love exercises and scripts for tough conversations in the bedroom, along with resources that set women up to walk into their physician’s office prepared and ready to stand up for their health.
As a sexual health researcher, I know that it can be challenging to make life-saving information relatable to an audience who justifiably have historical mistrust of the medical profession. RoyalTea aims to combat this by making crucial health information accessible to women in the Black community. This is what I strive to do through social-impact film, research, volunteering and collaborating with other fields. I was thrilled to work on this project because we, as Black women, have never really had a place and a space to acquire accurate sexual health information other than a few family members, girlfriends or an article in Cosmopolitan. (No shade.)
I’ve always been a champion of those that have been left out of the wellness and sexual health conversation and discourse. As women age, there’s a notion that your moment to contribute and make a difference in society is over, when, in fact, there is so much wisdom to be gained from growing older. Yet that wisdom is at risk of being lost because older Black women are a growing population that’s more vulnerable to STIs. They are less likely than their younger counterparts to view condom use as a form of protection from HIV because they are likely to view condoms as contraception. Among people over 50, Black people accounted for 42% of HIV diagnoses in 2016. These stats are alarming when you consider Black people only comprise 13% of the U.S. population. RoyalTea empowers women with the knowledge to make informed decisions about their health care and sex life. Our grandmothers, aunties and girlfriends will be equipped to share accurate information critical to our survival.
Whether one is sexually active or not, Upspoken is a safe space for Black women to learn, share their thoughts and experiences, and add their voices to the conversation around love, relationships, sex — and ultimately sexual health — as “Upspoken women.” Armed with Upspoken and itsRoyalTea, we hope Black women are able to answer two questions: How do I have a vibrant sex life, however I define it and how do I stay healthy while doing it? I hope these questions are answered while speaking up for their health, whether in the bedroom or the doctor’s office. Our health depends upon it.
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Dr. Megan Ebor earned her Ph.D. from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in the Department of Social Welfare. She’s an affiliate researcher for the Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Her research is guided by her interest in ways to improve the sexual-health outcomes for African American women and older adults. Specifically, she develops behavioral health interventions and is particularly interested in harnessing multi-media platforms for health promotion and disease prevention. By merging science and the arts Dr. Ebor aims to make research translational to under-resourced communities. Her debut film, Even Me, is an award-winning film that addresses the rise of HIV among older adults of color – a subject that you will not see addressed in any other documentary. The faces of HIV captured in this film are surprisingly different from what one would expect – highlighting that age is not a vaccine for HIV.
