State Voices

It’s hard for a woman of color to run [for office] because not only are you going to be targeted for being a woman, but you are also [targeted for] being a minority. And then whatever preconceptions people have about whatever race/ethnicity you are most likely is going to come out. …There were times where I was doing call time and I would say my name was Shavonnia [and] I’m running for U.S. Congress. And once my name would come out there were people who would say, ‘That sounds like an ‘n’ word name.’ And I would say, ‘Well I am Black if that’s what you’re saying.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, I’m not sure if I can support you.’ …These are things that I would say maybe are a little more unique to my area because I don’t look like my area. If I was running maybe in a larger, populist city maybe that would not have happened."

I think with my personality that I have been very agreeable, that I don’t wear my ethnicity on my sleeve and constantly talk about [it]. I’m always trying to assimilate and I feel like I was an easy Asian American to digest and hopefully those who come behind me will be a little bit bolder. …I want to be effective and if it makes other people feel uncomfortable, and I do see, especially [with] men, ‘I don’t know what to do with her. She looks different’…I have to make them feel comfortable and make sure that they know that I’m nice and that I’m not going to be the crazy liberal yelling at them. …I want their first impression of an Asian American to be all positive. And so I go out of my way to make sure that it happens. So every interaction is positive and nice, short, sweet and we move on."

I think of the next generation of Hispanic women coming up and saying, ‘No, I won’t be pushed aside. No, I won’t be silenced. I have work to do, and I’m going to get the work done regardless of the pushback that I receive.’ And there’s been a lot of that. But that pushback is what drives me."

What I see with some of the [programs] that are just nonpartisan in the state of Oklahoma, they are actually seen as partisan. So, you know, I think once you see the players and everyone involved, then you start to see, well, it may not be as nonpartisan as we think. And so I think conservative women tend to take a step back and look for other ways to be able to get involved."

I think that there’s [a] cultural backlash right now [to] incumbents and old politics. And so the fact that women haven’t been part of that as much has opened the door for…challengers against incumbents, particularly challenges against long-time, white, male incumbents whose old political strategy was just [to] raise all the money and run a mail plan."

I was the first commissioner at my Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board in 130 years to have a baby while in office. I didn’t know that when I had the baby. I found that out as I had to navigate certain things. And they were like, ‘We’ve never dealt with this before,’ so even things like maternity leave, they were like, ‘We don’t know because we’re technically part-time employees so we’re not FMLA eligible.’ …I didn’t know if I was getting paid until they paid me."

I think the only caveat I would add is [the Illinois Democratic Party and its leadership recruited and supported women] not because they love women. It’s because they know that we can win, right? So they are looking for any small advantage in these swing districts and they recognize more pragmatically that women could win. But they were looking for women who mimicked male politics. …They look for women who weren’t feminists, right? They weren’t working on women’s issues. They just were women who were more moderate fiscally. That was the model, right? The suburban soccer mom who maybe was on the PTA so had some name recognition, but not a real grassroots activist type – just a party player who would toe the party line. And they tended to be white women who were socially progressive and fiscally moderate, and just kind of ran on the party line. So they weren’t real progressive types."

[My experience as a Black woman in Oklahoma politics is different from others because of] the white fragility of conversations that I have to have because I’m seen as an angry Black woman. I’m seen as an aggressive Black woman. I’m seen as all of these things when I’m just trying to get some work done for the people that I’m serving. So I call it being assertive in response to that. But at the same time, unfortunately because my community’s experiences are different from our other council members, they don’t see the lens. And they believe that I’m just going to talk about Black issues. And technically, yes, I am because the majority of the people that I serve are [Black]."

As the second Black woman to ever serve since our city [was] incorporated in 1890, it has not been easy. It is very difficult. And I feel as if I am not taken seriously because of those things because this work, if you will, is for anybody but myself. …I don’t know if it’s because I’m a younger Black female, because I don’t have children, I’m not married…I don’t check a lot of boxes that people would make it seem as if I am believable or dependable or whatever the case may be, or I’ve had enough life experience to do this work."

You are not going to want to be in places that you don’t see representation clearly, and I know me being in this space has opened conversations for other young women that look like me."

One of the things that also happened to me, as I was running [for city council] was…the television station [I worked for] sent it all the way up to the corporate office and I had to resign from doing that work to run. And then the day after I was elected, my radio job let me go. …So that was my introduction to really being elected. You’re going to pay the cost and I paid the ultimate sacrifice because I remember telling my mother, I said, ‘You know, mom, I did not expect to have to worry about my community and myself. Now I have to worry about me and figure out how I’m going to survive on $12,000 a year. How am I going to pay rent? And do the things that I need to do in order to make my community successful without being selfishly worried about myself?’"

I’m going to say there’s not a cohesive [support infrastructure for women in politics] because there are so many silos of these different support systems. And you have to go find them. So if there was, you know, just like a guide – like you’re running for local office, you’re running for office in Oklahoma, who do you contact? What are your first steps? That, to me, would have been most helpful."