THE FUTURE OF BLACK WOMEN WITH MS DESERVE

There is a quiet instinct many Black women feel after a diagnosis.

We go silent.

Not because we are ashamed, but because we understand how the room can change once people know. Strength has long been our cultural assignment. The dependable one. The one who keeps going. The one who carries everyone else.

Illness complicates that identity.

We worry that sharing will make people uncomfortable. That we will suddenly be seen as fragile. That the conversation will shift from who we are to what is wrong with us.

So many of us keep it private.

A coworker recently pulled me aside and asked if she could give my number to her daughter-in-law, who had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then she added quietly, “Please don’t tell her I told you. She’s been very private.”

I told her I understood.

Because when I was diagnosed, I did the same thing.

Black women are now believed to have some of the highest incidence rates of MS in the United States. Research suggests we may also experience more aggressive disease progression. Yet we remain underrepresented in clinical trials and are often diagnosed later than our white counterparts.

The diagnosis is medical. The silence is cultural.

In professional spaces especially, silence can feel strategic. Capable can quickly become questioned. Accommodations can alter perception. Transparency can quietly shift opportunity.

So we perform wellness.

We negotiate with our bodies before 8 a.m. and still deliver by 9.

But silence comes with a cost.

When we hide the reality of living with MS, we also lose opportunities to build the kind of community and advocacy that can change outcomes.

That is why I said yes to supporting We Are ILL.

What stood out to me was intention. This organization centers Black women with MS not as an afterthought, but as a priority. Not as a statistic, but as a lived experience.

And that intention reframes what awareness can be.

Awareness alone does not change outcomes.

Investment does.

Investment in education so women recognize symptoms sooner. Investment in research that includes us. Investment in community spaces where we can speak honestly about chronic illness without being dismissed as dramatic. Investment in culturally grounded care that understands our lived realities.

This is the work behind the campaign theme Beyond Today, Powered by Possibility.

Beyond Today is a commitment to what comes next. A future where Black women with MS are diagnosed earlier, supported more fully, and represented in the research shaping their care.

A future where community does not disappear when awareness month ends.

Because the truth is, strong Black women do get sick.

But we are still building lives. Still building futures. Still building community.

The future Black women with MS deserve will require all of us to invest in what comes next.

This March, We Are ILL is inviting us to go Beyond Today. You can support the work by donating, sharing the mission, attending Wellness Week(end) in October, or partnering as a sponsor to help expand education, advocacy, and culturally grounded care.

Awareness is only the beginning.

The future is what we build after.