This interview was recorded in November 2018.
Bianca Duah is Staten Island’s finest. Point Blank Period. Hailing from Park Hill, Staten Island (Wu-Tang Clan stand up!), Bianca was one of the first people I met during admitted students day at Brown University. We bonded over our love for being Black girls who love a good dessert and a cultured outing. In fact, this interview was recorded as we inhaled some sweets at Molly’s Cupcakes. Then, we had our photoshoot while we eating ice cream sandwiches.
After graduating from Brown University with a degree in Health and Human Biology, Bianca started her job as a junior researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital. As a future physician, Bianca had a ton to share about her perspectives on health and what her community deserves.
Want to hear more from Bianca’s perspective? She is one half of Awks Podcast which drops every other Tuesday.
Isabelle: How has the health quality in your community affected you physically, emotionally, and mentally?
Bianca: I’d like to start with a story. Growing up, everyone had a corner store. If you had a dollar, you were…well, you weren’t Oprah but you were Gayle. Okay? If you had two dollars, you were Oprah and Stedman together. Every single day, I would go to the corner store and…you know quarter waters? And then I would also buy these fifty-cent chocolate-covered graham crackers. The chocolate honestly didn’t even taste like chocolate…it tasted like artificial something.
Isabelle: It tasted like the lab?
Bianca: Literally lab stuff! But, I was eating it up. Doing the most! If I was really hungry, I would go to the Chinese restaurant. Nobody knows the name of the restaurant. It’s been there before I was born. Anyway, but, we still buy their chicken wings and french fries with extra hot sauce. If we are talking about health in that context of food, I think what I thought was normal were those things. But, I was raised in a Ghanaian household and we do care about three square meals during the day…or at least one big hearty meal at the end of the day. Dealing with the duality of both of those things…it did show me that there is inequality when it comes to food options. I still have my jollof rice at home.
Isabelle: As a backup…
Bianca: Right! I also don’t think I realized that asthma, diabetes, and arthritis weren’t normal until I went to school outside of my neighborhood and people were like, “What is that?” People are overweight and you know, African and Caribbean people, you think it’s cute. You can be “slim thick” but when you are obese and it’s affecting your health… that’s a different story. So, I think it made me mindful of how culture and perspective and the lack of certain things affects the way that we perceive health. But, you can’t also negate what a community has grown accustomed too. You know? When I’m a physician, I’ll tell a patient…if you are going to buy french fries and Popeyes, maybe you should split it…eat half today and half tomorrow.
Isabelle: How do you think being a Black woman affects your health?
Bianca: Mm. Heavy. I don’t know. Do you know that minority stress theory? It’s a real thing. These are all these reports about the Black woman dying and having all these crazy things happen to them that other people don’t have. So, you start to ask yourself why? You know…we are going into the same hospital, we both have the same doctor, we have same pre-natal history, but my baby is coming out smaller and I have a higher risk of dying. And, honestly, it’s stress. All of my mother’s kids were premature…every single one of them. And…yeah. It makes you kind of wonder…what can we do? Because preventive medicine is important…what steps can we take to make sure people don’t end up in these types of situations? Even the fact that…when Black women get pregnant…there are some women that don’t get to take off work until the week before. Black women are stressed! If it’s not stress in their home, it’s stress outside. You are conditioned to things…where you think you can’t take a break and I see that in myself now. Sometimes I have to tell myself, “Girl, if you die.. they will bury you and find someone else to do the work.” Especially going forward in the medical field…perspective is important. I’m not supposed to be doing everything. If I can’t do it, someone else is going to have to do it.
Isabelle: The road to being a medical professional is a long and stressful one. How do you see this affecting your health negatively or positively?
Bianca: I think not going on with this disillusioned sense of what is going to happen…I’ve already accepted it. I know it’s going to be hard. Getting into med school, getting into residency…it’s a matter of perspective. I can do what I can and my knowledge will be sufficient. And ultimately…if a patient comes in and they are sick and I have done all I can…I’ve done all that I can. I think that’s going to be challenging for me to accept because people will be out here dying. But, I’m not God. I can’t raise anybody from the dead.
Isabelle: Do you remember that New York Times article of the girl that reminded us of ourselves in college and she was homeless after college many years later because of her struggles with mental health?
Bianca: Oh my God…
Isabelle: So, I was going to ask you…why did it hit home for you? Because you messaged it….to like everybody.
Bianca: I did! I just think I saw every single one of us in that. Because I think that people have been boosting us up for a minute because we study. But, very few people know what goes into what we are doing.
Isabelle: When I went back to Brown with my students…I literally said to them “I cried in that building…in that building…” They thought I was joking but I was so serious. I cried near that tree. I cried over here…
Bianca: They got my tears worth. Every time I took an exam at Brown University…I don’t care what test. Every time…I would leave an exam I would come out mad confused and start walking and end up at Joe’s. Every time…getting unhealthy food. But, that story about the girl hit me because all of my friends are grinding and people will say “Oh you are doing so well.”
But, we aren’t taking care of ourselves. But, if we ever brought up the topic of mental health to each other, we would dismiss it and say “Oh no, later..” But, you do need to talk about that. Because even if you have gone through nothing traumatic…what you are going through in college is traumatic. She had a good group of friends. It just humbled me. I’m not saying this to be boastful because anything that anyone compliments about me…it’s literally Grace and God doing whatever. Wow! People boost me up. But, man, little do you know how much I’m struggling! I’m just not a crier in public.
Isabelle: How does your faith intersect with your health and the upkeep of your body?
Bianca: I think it’s just taking care of myself. I believe doing God’s work is taking care of yourself but you can’t die before your time. There has to be a balance of both. Also, discipline. I don’t think we always connect faith and discipline. But, in order to have faith, you have to have discipline. You have to be able to believe regardless. You have workout regardless. I actually hate kale…but I am going to drink it regardless. Do you see what I am saying? I think I am striving to develop that discipline because it’s easy to be all talk. I can hype anybody up. But, when it comes to encouraging myself, oh girl…it’s forcing yourself to believe and act on what you believe.
Isabelle: What is your hope for self-care and health improvement within your family and community?
Bianca: Whatever it is I want for myself….it’s what I want for my family and community. So, for me, I am just learning that I deserve the best. In terms of access to health, access to joy… you deserve that. The people that I’ve grown up around can’t even envision that they deserve better. They make me so tight. No, you don’t need to live like this. But, it’s warranted, how do you even get to where you need to go? I was in the lobby of the apartment building where I used to live and they were having some…you know how Black people have these big ole birthday parties for one-year-olds? There are some boys there all the time and they were passing around a football outside of the party. Because it’s like…man, Y’all want to be football players. Meanwhile, instead of asking themselves, how do they make the football? How can I sit on the couch and make money?
This sounds really cliche but I really want potential in my community to be actualized. There was the now-defunct Ghana Airways because you know, corruption….but one time, I saw Al Sharpton at the airport. And I was young and I didn’t know who the hell Al Sharpton was but my mom said “Heh! You better go over there!” I went up to this man. But, I’ll never forget what he said to me… “It doesn’t matter where you come from. Your neighborhood doesn’t determine who you are going to be.” Where I come from, people don’t go to college. If they go to college, they go to the College of Staten Island which is just fine but it’s not outside our scope. Nobody went to Ivy League schools. But, if I am doing the work, I deserve to be in these spaces.
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