Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaliyah Bailey.
Hi Aaliyah; thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Nashville, Illinois. My father, who instilled pro-Blackness in every one of my siblings, was one of the first free Black persons to live in Washington County. We were forced to become our advocates, even before knowing and understanding the language of racial justice. Throughout high school and college, I studied Political Science, focusing my work on health policy and bridging gaps in healthcare. I became politically active during an internship with the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis in 2018, where I worked on CLEAN Missouri and opposed Right to Work. I spoke with voters daily and began understanding the impact I could make in my community. After my internship ended, I stayed involved with the group and supported efforts to expand into St. Charles County. Because of my leadership in that work, I was encouraged to run for State Representative in District 64. By the end of 2019, with my one-year-old daughter Amiyah by my side, I decided to run for office and advocate for the needs of Black rural communities. During my campaign, I realized that fighting for Black rural communities would not be easy. Urban leaders did not care about the plight of rural folks, and Black leaders didn’t understand my push for rural support, falling into the false belief that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are not residents of rural counties. Since my 2020 campaign, I’ve continued to raise awareness about rural health disparities and the impacts of the rural health crisis on Black communities and found a home within the Reproductive Justice movement. I currently work at Pro-Choice Missouri, the leading pro-abortion grassroots advocacy organization in Missouri. We believe that every person should be able to make personal decisions about the full range of sexual and reproductive health options as Director of Communication. Rural communities have the right to parent safely in communities with dignity and respect, including having access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion care, comprehensive mental and behavioral support services, and substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and harm reduction services.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest struggle is people not knowing the Black community exists in the rural Midwest. The Center on Rural Innovations “Aperture Project” released new data that shows of the 100 poorest counties in the United States, 86 are rural, and 14 million of those residents identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (https://ruralinnovation.us/resources/mapping-and-data-analytics/the-rural-aperture-project/). The whitewashing of the Midwestern countryside hurts BIPOC communities because we miss out on critical support, resources, and money needed to close the racial and rural health disparities gap. Additionally, rural communities are written off as “voting against their interests” or for being affiliated with a particular political party. Still, the truth is that neither political party is engaging and supporting rural interests. It’s not enough to expect our vote just because you want something that would benefit us theoretically. For example, I heard many Democrats who were frustrated that more rural residents didn’t vote for Medicaid expansion, which passed in Missouri in 2020, without taking the time to understand that our hospitals and clinics are closing at an alarming rate. We may not even be able to use this benefit.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Although passionate about healthcare, I knew early on that I did not want a career in direct services. The common thread of my healthcare career is that I’ve worked as a direct support professional and caregiver, integrated health specialist, public health professional, and now Director of Communications for a reproductive health advocacy organization. The COVID-19 pandemic hit shortly after I announced my campaign for Missouri State Representative of District 64, so I taught myself the digital skills necessary to run a campaign online and fell in love with creating content, managing social media, and creating a digital strategy. I’m proud of teaching myself everything I know and growing my audience on Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Living my truth boldly attracts my audience. As a Black rural advocate, allowing respectability to overtake my message would be easy, and many people have advised me to tone it down. But I do not shy away from conventionally hard topics, including sexual pleasure, suicidal ideation, and my experience surviving domestic violence. I am unashamed about my status as an unwed single parent, how I dress and love my body and my identity as a Black genderqueer professional. I also want to say that it can be extremely tough being a rural professional. While COVID-19 has normalized remote and hybrid work, many companies and organizations still want employees to live near the home office. I challenge social justice organizations to rethink those policies, especially those claiming to do statewide or regional work. To truly reach statewide and into rural communities, you should hire from within those communities and not force them to move or burden them with unnecessary commutes.
What matters most to you? Why?
A fellow organizer once told me, “Being a Black rural advocate must be so lonely. There aren’t many of you.” And they were right; adding in the politics of gender, sexuality, and class, and this work gets very heavy some days. I keep going because I know others identify with me black rural single moms who’ve survived domestic violence, Black rural youth who identify as LGBTQIA+, Black rural folks surviving financial hardships, and whole Black rural communities who simply need access to quality, trauma-informed, gender-affirming healthcare. I have a voice and platform; the more I use it, the less alone I feel. My community needs me, so I will continue raising awareness about Black rural health. Without liberation, we have no freedom, including those in Black communities settled in rural areas. Additionally, many people have asked why I don’t just leave, and I want to be clear that moving out of my community is not an option. First and foremost, this is my home, and there is too long a history of the US forcing Black residents to move whenever our presence is inconvenient. Instead, we should address that history of anti-Blackness and racism that has led to the current plight of rural communities and shifted our culture.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/aaliyahpbailey
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaliyahpbailey/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaliyah.bailey.35
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaliyahpb/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaliyahpbailey
- TikTok: Sweet.Bailey
