For 26 years, I worked and kept showing up. But anytime there was a special project that involved lifting, he always chose the Black ladies. I ended up hurting myself lifting a box, and it got so serious that I could not stop bleeding. I had to go to emergency, and they even thought I was having a miscarriage. I was not having a miscarriage. My doctor had to pull me off work, and that decision saved my life.

What happened to me did not just affect one shift or one day. It affected my mental health and my physical health. And what hurts just as much is how familiar this pattern is for so many Black women at work. We are expected to carry more, do more, endure more, and stay quiet about it. Then when something goes wrong, the system acts like our pain came out of nowhere instead of admitting that unequal treatment and unsafe expectations helped cause it.

This is why I am calling on employers, especially in healthcare and care environments, to stop assigning Black women the heaviest physical work by default and to put clear, enforced protections in place for fair task distribution. No one should be singled out for lifting or high-burden assignments because of stereotypes about being strong, resilient, or able to handle more. Employers must create written safeguards, train supervisors, and hold managers accountable when Black women are repeatedly given physically risky duties without proper support.

Black women are human beings, not endless sources of labor and sacrifice. We deserve workplaces where support is real, safety is taken seriously, and leadership cannot hide behind double standards. If you believe no one should be injured because of bias dressed up as teamwork, please sign this petition.