Suport a Black Social Worker

Fulfilling my dreams of becoming a social worker/ mental health provider for Black people has been a long winding road and quite expensive. I am here asking for your support to pay off my graduate student loans. Today I am asking for your help to ease some of the burden for me as I end my journey as a student gaining my MSSW and begin my journey as LMSW towards becoming an LCSW. As an Black woman, I have often times had to magnify my voice, due to the scarcity in number of those that look like me in my field, and at times that extra labor is exhausting. My opportunity to provide a unique perspective contributing to the dialogue of mental health is one that I lean into whole heartedly in the most collaborative ways possible, but I would be remiss if I did not mention that it often felt lonely and disconnecting in the classrooms. I was grateful to have the privilege to stay at home while working in health and human services as I worked overtime to pay off my $37,000 of undergraduate students loans (this was even after receiving a Pell grant), however since then my financial circumstances have changed. My graduate school loans total $69,000, however today I am asking for only the tuition cost. I am so honored to have such an amazing community of folks who stepped up to help my family pay for the funeral cost of both of my parents, although that left the decision to go back to graduate school an ever more financially risky one. A major force that led me back to school was a systemic frustration in how my applicants were bounced around from system to system each seemingly more harmful than the last. However, now I would like to focus on myself in all of this. As many of you have learned over the last few weeks or decades, being Black in America has its challenges, and I suspect these challenges will persist, but today, at least financially I am asking for your support to ease my burden financially so I can give more of myself emotionally to my clients. The University of Texas has a Black population of less than 5% which meant that I was often the only Black student in many of my social work classes. This meant navigating many unsafe white spaces and voicing my opinions gently and loudly so that others could and hopefully would deepen their understanding. This also meant doing more work as a Dean’s Ambassador for my program as they were trying to recruit more diverse candidates, however the $5 coffee gift cards did not erase the pain in realizing if I chose to say no, there weren’t many other options to take on this extra recruitment and emotional labor in sharing my story with potential MSSW candidates. This meant sitting with clients at the UT counseling center whom had never met with a non-white counselor. It was and is impactful work and luckily I do not do this work for the financial gain, but it would be nice to ease the tension of looming graduate loans. When I worked with sickle cell clients this meant advocating with clients in hospitals, schools, and the larger community systems all the while being invalidated and minimized by ER and nursing staff, community members, and educators whom ignored me and my clients simply due to the color of my skin. It's one thing for a white women to tell hospital staff that your client needs more attention, its another when you look like myself. I would hold these stories and share them with my white counterparts in white spaces many times with non-black professors and educators in the hopes that they would begin to understand their richly melanated skin client's struggles in a more contextual way. I would kindly point out ways in which it might be more difficult for my non-black peer's Black clients to build rapport and trust them, when society often times refused to acknowledge or see them in any authentic way. I know without a doubt that this work is my passion and I hope to someday pay it forward in addition to my work with clients, through trainings, supervising, and educating others. Lastly, I will share a recent realization for myself. When Coronavirus shut down the University of Texas and I was told that I could leave my internship, I passionately advocated for myself to stay on and continue because I did not want to leave my clients, particularly those BIPOC that were also exhausted from navigating white spaces. I do not say this for any other reason except to acknowledge that it is liberating to enter into this work knowing that even when tested I know that I am willing to do this work for free even during a global pandemic. My colleagues, friends, and family can attest to my relentless, social justice oriented energy and kindness for helping others, and so today I am asking for you to help me, help others. Thank you. Sincerely, Tina :)