Eagerly from Seattle, Wash., I watched her first announcement to run for mayor, reading the Peoria Journal Star, visiting her website — all the time wondering what I could do to ensure that her run was successful and that the…
Author Archive for Kamara Taylor
Real Talk | Miseducation about the vaccination –– why people of color mistrust medicine
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Miseducation about the vaccination –– why people of color mistrust medicine
As I write this article, I have spent the last year as most of us have –– isolated, socially distanced and careful often times in fear or thinking about the unknown such as where did this virus come dfrom? Why…
Real Talk | Linking a broken system to slavery and Jim Crow
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Linking a broken system to slavery and Jim Crow
What is justice in a country that considers its same justice to be blind? At 4 a.m., I lay awake thinking about the “20/20” episode I had viewed on television about Breonna Taylor who was shot to death by police…
Real Talk | Love through the destruction
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Love through the destruction
With the abundance of social chaos and the political and economic demise from multiple pandemics, there is no surprise that disparity continues to surround our society. These are trying times, and there remains real pain. However, I am constantly reminded…
Real Talk | When the message gets lost
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | When the message gets lost
There is no surprise that our country is in a state of unrest. From the pandemic to the riots, to questioning and challenging the mattering of Black lives to the rebuttal of all lives. From the challenge to mask or…
Real Talk | Breaking Democracy. I can’t breathe.
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Breaking Democracy. I can’t breathe.
As I reflect on my grandmother, I understand the rule of thumb instilled in her to live by and fear Jim Crow –– a fictitious name but one with real life ramifications. My great grandfather was on the run from…
Real Talk | Searching for little messiahs
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Searching for little messiahs
How can we see through the lies of others when we are longing for the truth? The way our mind is set up, we look for others to lead us to the truth. This path for truth comes in different…
Real Talk | When the smoke clears: The legalization of marijuana in Illinois
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | When the smoke clears: The legalization of marijuana in Illinois
Implicit biases that still exist with marijuana stem from “refer madness” from the early 1950s. Those biases were geared toward individuals living in poverty and the escape provided by marijuana. The mythology of marijuana is that it causes aggression; it…
Real Talk | Post fear of prior trauma
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Post fear of prior trauma
How does trauma impact our lives? How do we get over fear that events that harmed us in the past now play on the anxiety over our future? With my daily interactions with people, there is so much pain that…
Real Talk | Everything is beautiful in its time
by Kamara Taylor • • Comments Off on Real Talk | Everything is beautiful in its time
In a world that is so filled with hurt and destruction, it is challenging to see the beauty in things. I spent an entire day at the gravesite of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. As I grieved the…