{{ BLACK BLACK WOMEN WOMEN ROC ROC }} “The one thing that scares Tiffany is the pushback teachers are seeing to exclude Black Americans from American history, cutting out mentions of slavery, civil rights, Jim Crow, redlining, the KKK and racism (to the minimal extent in which they are even mentioned).”
is Tiffany’s happy place and a calling. “I needed to protest, hit the pavement, and just do more. I knew it was not good for my soul to be sitting here, so I started protesting. And I’m thinking all these folks came from their suburban homes, me being one of them too, and we went and protested in Rochester, and came back to our suburban homes where it was peaceful and euphoric. I realized we need to be agents of change where we live too. That’s what Being Black in the Burbs is about, building anti-racist communities in the suburbs.” Tiffany’s work creating mutual aid programs is in part inspired by the community she grew up in. “I grew up in the apartment complex in Perinton Pines. We had a community of mutual aid before the concept even existed. In that apartment complex we were our own, because we all had something in common which was poverty. We looked out for each other. My mom liked to feed whoever needed a meal, and if you liked her food she would cook you more. We grew up with a lot of kids who were mixed, so sometimes their parents didn’t know how to do their hair. Before holidays, my mom would stay up until two and three in the morning doing hair.” Many of Tiffany’s friends were first generation immigrants. “In my friend group I was the minority, because I didn’t have an accent. My childhood friends, who I am still friends with to this day are Lao, Indian, Vietnamese, and Russian. We stood up for each other in school and out of school. Some of us had it harder than others, but
we were our own little community. If somebody didn’t have money to go to the local pool, or the amusement park, we would figure out a way to get their money up. So it was those kinds of interactions, taking care of each other that inspires me and pushes me. It’s that kind of community that I want for everyone.” It’s a community model of care that she believes could be scaled up to any city and even globally with enough awareness and intention. “I love my community. My community inspires me. I can point out the flaws and try to fix it and still love my community. That’s what people need to understand. People say I am trying to throw Fairport under the bus, but that’s not it at all. We all have flaws, nobody is perfect, but we need to get honest about what we can work on.” When people say they can’t imagine a society without police, Tiffany can help put that idea in context. “I say ‘Look at the suburbs now. They are only there for traffic. It’s not over policed.’ The suburbs are a model of how well a community can thrive when people have their needs met. All of the high crime areas are over policed and the crime rates are still rising, so the police are not deterring any of the crime, they are inflaming it. If community members have their basic needs met, crimes will drop, and there would be no need for policing. People are in survival mode, and they need to survive. It may not be right, but you can’t judge the things people
do to survive. My apartment complex in the Pines did not have that survival instinct kick in, because we took care of each other. If we put resources into community programs that focus on meeting the basic needs of its citizens, crimes will fall.” It’s not just Rochester that can benefit from a collective embrace, but the world. Lately, Tiffany has been listening to Angela Davis’s books on tape, “She is my hero,” says Tiffany. Davis’s philosophies have helped inform Tiffany’s perspective on how destructive racism can be for all people of all races who exist in the lower socioeconomic brackets. She believes racism only benefits the rich and that this and other social constructs only serve to divide the working class and ensure the wealthy continue to hold onto power. “I think the middle class right now is being wiped. It’s just going to be the poor and rich. We can’t even address that because there’s so much racism. And it’s intentional and it’s to keep us divided, because if the poor alone were on the same page, we would have all the power to make movements and changes. But that’s the thing, can we get over racism? That’s what my journey is right now.” APPROACHING RACISM AS AN INTERSECTIONAL, GLOBAL ISSUE Similar to racism, Tiffany believes homophobia is a construct rooted in white supremacy and introduced through Christianity to control and divide people. “Black people have ROCHESTER WOMAN ONLINE :: AUGUST EDITION 2021
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