Minority Health Month: A Wear Your Voice Reading List

Home Sex and Health Minority Health Month: A Wear Your Voice Reading List

For Minority Health Month our reading list illustrates how settler-colonialism is an ongoing project dependent on ensuring that health inequities affecting BIPOC continue to thrive.

April is National Minority Health Month. Like many different iterations of white supremacy and systemic oppression, “good health” is discussed in ways that put the onus of health on the individual rather than interrogate how power structures are responsible for the suffering of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and other marginalized peoples. In the United States, health disparities that disproportionately affect BIPOC of all classes can be traced back to the foundations of this settler-colonial nation and continue to show that the most marginalized are intentionally harmed by this imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Settler-colonialism is an ongoing project dependent on ensuring that these inequities thrive. 

Wear Your Voice has published hundreds of pieces that illustrate how these oppressions affect our health, how they are sustained by government policy and social beliefs. As such, we thought it would be of use to provide a curated list of those pieces to give our readers an understanding of different aspects of health and how perspectives on health are skewed by white supremacy, capitalism, cis heteropatriarchy, ableism, fatphobia, and other oppressions and biases. 

Mental Health

The Weight of a Backpack: Mental Health in South Asian Immigrant Communities

How My Kittens Saved My Family’s Mental Health

Spinning Out: Bipolar Motherhood, Daughterhood Duality

8 Mental Health and Self Care Resources for QTPOC

Drug Abuse Isn’t Killing People — The Stigma of Mental Health Is.

South Asians: Our Silence About Mental Health is Killing Us

“But Some of Us Are Brave”: On Kanye West and the Disposal of Black Women & Femmes’ Mental Health

Kid Cudi: Why Black Mental Health Matters

“Checking On Your Friends” Isn’t Enough to Prevent Suicide

Committing To Wellness Practices When You’re The Only Black Person In The Room

“Black People Don’t Go to Therapy” and Other Myths Our Parents Told Us

How Our Use of Language Dehumanizes & Demonizes Mental Illness

White Fragility And The Mask Of Mental Health

Ableism

What It’s Like To Have Ocd During A Pandemic

The Coronavirus Is Putting The Failings of Ableism and Individualism on Full Display

Ableism and Anti-Blackness Go Hand in Hand

The Hidden Costs Of Academia: 4 Things Professors Should Recognize

21 Ways Able-bodied Privilege Looks

RECOMMENDED: Sexual Assault Awareness Month: A Wear Your Voice Reading List

Body Politics 

Why We Need a “Body Reform” in Healthcare

It’s Time for PCOS Advocacy To Embrace Fat Activism

Diet Culture and Weight Loss Programs Are A Scam

Three Ways to Talk to Black and Brown People About Our Eating Disorders

Black Women Suffer From Eating Disorders Too, Stop Pushing Us Out Of Those Conversations

Substance Use

Safe Injection Sites Affirm the Humanity of People With Addiction

Stop Stigmatizing How We Recover From Drug Addiction

Drug Addiction Is A Disorder–Not A Moral Failure

My Father was an Alcoholic, and the Scars Remain

To Solve The Opioid Crisis We Need To Go Beyond The 12 Step Program

Cannabis

How Cannabis Can Improve Your Sex Life If You Live With Chronic Pain

These Cannabis Brands Are Addressing Sexual Health And Wellness Needs

How Cannabis Eased My Pain And Led Me To A Fulfilling Sex Life

Cannabis and PTSD: Holistic Healing For Survivors Of Sexual Violence

How Cannabis Can Help With The Many Symptoms of Menopause

The Marijuana Industry Alienates Black People and Benefits White Folks

What It’s Like Being a Black Woman in the Legal Cannabis Industry

How Cannabis Helped Me Survive My Chronic Skin Condition

RECOMMENDED: Fatphobia: A Wear Your Voice Reading List

Medical Industrial Complex

7 BIPOC Led Public Health Organizations to Support

We are Witnessing The CDC’s Violent Eugenicist History in Real-Time

The History of the Medical Industry’s Role in Oppression is Well Documented

For Black Folk With Prostates

Black Mirror’s “Black Museum” and the History of Medical Experimentation on Black Bodies

Nobody Believes That Black Women are in Pain, and It’s Killing Us

How Racism Ensures That Chronically Ill Black Kids Receive Poor Pain Management

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Reproductive Autonomy 

For Black And Native Women, Doulas Can Prevent Deaths

Engaging With Black Pregnancy Outside of High Childbirth Mortality Rates

How to Prevent Pregnancy When Your Abuser is Using Reproductive Coercion

Reproductive Coercion Needs To Be Talked About More

Marshae Jones and how the Criminalization of Miscarriages Fits In With Abortion Laws

Reproductive Control is About Far More Than “Women’s Bodies”

The Fight Against Reproductive Rights Targets the Most Marginalized People—Here is How You Can Help

What You Need to Know About Abortion Doulas and Their Vital Work

This Documentary Uncovers Anti-Abortion Movement’s Disregard for Actual Black Lives

RECOMMENDED: BLACK WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: A WEAR YOUR VOICE READING LIST

Sexual Wellness 

For Some Survivors, Phone Sex Can Be A Path To Healing

Between My Thighs Is All Mine: A Journey To Accepting My Asexual Identity

Fat Black Women Deserve Fulfilling, Enjoyable Sex Without Compromise

How Do Black Girls Navigate Sexuality When The World Insists That We Shouldn’t At All?

Sex Should Not Be Painful: The Stigma of Vaginismus

The Ritual Of Taking Nude Photos For Myself Helped Me Reclaim My Body

Why Can’t I Cum? A Survivor’s Quest For An Orgasm

What A Sex Resort Taught Me About Shame

4 Things People Do That Harm Survivors of Sexual Violence

My Vow of Celibacy Helped Me Find Sexual Liberation

Navigating Fetishism as a Queer, Non-Binary, Black Sex Worker

‘It’s Not You, It’s Not Me’ Centers Allosexual Feelings And Fails Asexual People

Sex Therapist Raquel Savage: “Be forgiving and patient with yourself.”

‘Pleasure Activism’ Delves Into The Politics of Sex and Desire

Masturbation Tips for your Queerest, Sexiest Spring Ever

21 People Share Their First “Best” Sex Stories