Yolonda Ross is advocating for breast cancer awareness and celebrates breast cancer survivors

Yolonda, please tell us about you! You are an accomplished writer, director, and actress, where did you get your start?

I got my start in Omaha, NE.  I’ve always been creative. I do everything but dance.  I have played piano and organ since I was five. I sing, paint, make clothes, write, direct, act.. I create.  Living in a place, and with a family that allowed me to dream, and didn’t squash my dreams, was key. They encouraged me.  Moving to New York was all the opportunity I really needed, because there are so many more outlets for creativity, so many to learn that I never knew of. I went to school for fashion business. I did a lot of jobs in fashion, from windows, to management, to buying. I fell into acting by doing background work on SNL in the Mid 90’s. I got my union card and an agent, then auditioned for my first part, which was New York Undercover. I booked it. But in doing that audition it opened something up in me. Truthfully looking back on it all, I feel l was led to where I was supposed to be. I had been feeling stagnant in the fashion business.  Becoming someone else through character, getting to use all of my gifts to create this person, who is not me, was very exciting. You learn things about yourself, and human behavior.  Learning to break down a script for myself, which is musically, was very exciting as well, and new to me.  It’s something I wanted to do again, and did four years later… Just to say, nothing really happens overnight.  Within that time the company I was working for decided to close up in NY, so I left with a great severance package.  I decided I was going to try and do this “acting thing”, which is kind of crazy, because there is no one way of getting into this business, and no one can ever really explain how they got to where they are.  My next audition was for the HBO film “Stranger Inside”, where I was a young girl who got herself imprisoned, where she thought the mother she never had while growing up, was being kept.  That experience solidified what I was feeling and learning.  Becoming others, and creating stories of people we see but don’t look at, or get to know, is what I feel my purpose is. We deserve to see every version of ourselves, just like our white counterparts. 

You famously shaved your long hair on camera as your character embarked on their breast cancer journey last season. In preparation for the role, you learned that Black women with breast cancer face major disparities in their healthcare.

What were some of the shocking insights you learned?                                                                                                                                                                                       Sadly, I learned that it’s not just the emotions that come with the hair cutting, but the aftermath of the process. Black women do not have the same options as white women or those with straight European hair. If you are someone who wears your hair in a natural state, or wants to continue looking like you have the hair that previously grew from your head, the options are nil.  After shaving my head, I asked our key hair person,  Denise Baker, about wearing wigs for other jobs, as my own hair was gone. It’s not the same as just purchasing a wig and being able to pin it, or have a few grips to hold it.   Many times insurance will pay for the wigs, and many times there are hair boutiques inside of hospitals.  In these boutiques are people that are trained to help cancer patients or alopecia patients, deal with finding a wig that works for them, that makes them feel confident going out into the world.  The hospital boutiques are a very different experience than going to the average wig shop that most women get their wigs from.  Purchasing these wigs is not really a vanity mission. 

 So, think of this, as a black woman, where so much attention, and  your identity is many times your hair,  you lose it to a medical condition.   You may or may not have health insurance that will cover the purchase of a wig of your choice, so you can go back out into the world with confidence, but the simple fact that the hair boutique in your hospital, or any hospital in your city, doesn’t carry wigs that look like your texture of hair…  now what?   That is a healthcare disparity, one of many.   It makes you feel like the fighting never stops. Something as simple as,  carrying at least a couple options of textured wigs for black and brown women, should be at the very least what hospitals around the country do. It’s as if we don’t exist.   I know that the company “Coils to Locs”, is a great supplier, created by two black sisters, one of whom went through this scenario, which pushed her to start the company. http://coilstolocs.com   Doctors seeing our skin and not listening to us, when we tell them about our pains, or about irregularities happening with our bodies, needs to stop.  Sending us home without doing that MRI on us, when they will do it for our white counterparts, needs to stop. Doctors who have the attitude that women of color are super human and don’t need the same care, or are trying to get drugs of some kind, needs to stop. A black woman shouldn’t have to go to three different doctors, to finally have one listen to her, thoroughly run tests on her, to find that she does have cancer, and could have been diagnosed months earlier. She may not have months.  Time is always of the essence when you are talking about saving someone’s life.  I was so glad to be introduced to CHET (Center for Health Equity Transformation) , Equal Hope, and the Tatisa C Joiner Foundation, by Dr. Melissa Simon at Northwestern Medicine.  These organizations are actively helping women of color to not just make it through the cancer journey, but to thrive and reach back to help others navigate it. 

Why is it important for you to advocate for equity in healthcare when it comes to breast cancer for Black women?  

It’s important for me to advocate for equality in healthcare when it comes to breast cancer, or any life threatening disease for Black women, because we deserve that. Black women are diagnosed the least and have the highest rate of death out of all the races when it comes to breast cancer. That needs to change. Our lives are important. 

You are involved in several organizations that advocate breast cancer awareness and celebrate breast cancer survivors, please tell us more about the different organizations and your involvement.   Dr. Melissa Simon, who is the director and creator of CHET, schooled me on these organizations. I wanted to meet and work with grass root organizations that are on the ground, in the neighborhoods, really helping black women.    CHET –   bridges the gaps between research, community needs, and policy by exposing inequalities and transforming systems and structures so that people of color and any marginalized group have the opportunity to achieve their best possible health. https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/chet/

EQUAL HOPE –   Addresses women’s health holistically by helping women establish medical homes with the goal of eliminating inequities in prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship for all women. https://equalhope.org        

 Tatisa C. Joiner. who is a black female trailblazer in the Southside of Chicago, whose non-profit the “Tatisa C Joiner Foundation”,  is there for women who need that ear, who need that comradery of those that understand what they are going through, who need that navigator to help them through the healthcare system, through the journey of cancer, when you don’t know which way is up, or which way to go. Curing cancer is not a one-stop shop. Most times it takes many trips, to several specialists during a woman’s cancer journey, so having someone at the very least  LISTENING to you, and being there along the way is a huge comfort.  https://www.tatisacjoinerfoundation.com

What are some ways other people can get involved in this important cause for breast cancer awareness for Black women? I feel like we all know of someone who has been touched by cancer. From what I’ve seen, the simplest gestures mean the most. Checking in. Saying, “Hello, just thinking about you”.  Offering a ride to a doctors’ appt. Dropping off a meal. Making sure your loved ones are getting those mammograms done, no exceptions. Listen to your body.