Words by Julia Maues and Christine Hodgdon
The two of us are white women. We are living with metastatic breast cancer and engaged in advocacy to allow people with cancer to live longer and better lives. In this role, we get our voices heard by writing articles, speaking on panels, participating in advisory boards, or reviewing grants. We have always seen ourselves as allies to people of color and thought it was unacceptable that certain population groups experience disparities in cancer outcomes. But we decided that “not being ok” with something this terrible wasn’t enough! We had to act. Inspired by the work of Maimah Karmo from The Tigerlily Foundation and Jasmine Souers and Marissa Thomas from For the Breast of Us, all early stage breast cancer survivors who always include the metastatic experience, we decided to make an inclusion pledge. WE PLEDGE TO NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY ADVOCACY INITIATIVE - PANELS, ADVISORY BOARDS, PLANNING COMMITTEES, PROGRAMS, ETC - THAT DON’T INCLUDE THE EXPERIENCE OF PEOPLE OF COLOR. Now it’s your turn. What’s your #InclusionPledge?
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