Where are the black people with cancer?
I was just looking at a developing story on the New York Times blog about life after cancer. NYTimes - Picture Your Life After Cancer And I was thinking about submitting my picture and a brief story to the mix. But as I looked more closely, I was amazed that there wasn't at least one other brown face. Not one.
How could this be possible in the NYTimes? I mean, this is a global paper. Don't black folks read the NYTimes?
*That was tongue-in-cheek humor. I mean, I'm a black folks and I was reading it. So of course, black people read the NYTimes!*
Why so few images of black women with breast cancer? Or is it my imagination?
I know that cancer is pervasive in our country. I know that millions of people are living and surviving this horrible disease right now. The numbers for breast cancer survivors rattle around in my brain every day. But whenever there is a story or a book or a movie about cancer... I look for faces like mine. And I rarely see them. It is so amazing and yet maddening that we are not often depicted in pictures or mainstream stories. I don't quite get it.
Don't get me wrong. I do identify with the stories of my sisters of other races who battle breast cancer. I really do. But I am a black woman and I like to see stories and pictures of people fighting this battle who look like me, think like me, showcase cultural references that are similar to mine and so forth. I am constantly surprised that our stories just aren't out there too much.
I suppose that means I should do something to help change that.
*Update September 2015: In the five years since I wrote this post, I can say that I have been seeing lots of images and stories in the media about black women with breast cancer. It always makes me feel included to see faces like mine. Now, I find myself wondering where are my Asian sisters, Native American sisters and my Latina sisters. (laughs) I'm not being difficult. But I know that diverse images do a lot to tell the stories about breast cancer as well as help all of us to realize that breast cancer can happen to anyone. Guess that means that we've still got work to do.*
