Collected Item: “Dionne Yvette Ferguson Oral History, 2022/08/11”
Title
Dionne Ferguson
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Dionne Ferguson
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#Black, #Blachhistory, #CDC, #COVID+, #family, #food, #gardening, #groceries, #hugging, #masking, #medicalracism, #Missouri, #motherhood, #nonprofit, #race, #racism, #shootings, #slavery, #StLouis, #travel, #university, #vaccination, #youth
What is the format of your recording?
Video
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
St. Louis, Missouri
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
Female/Woman/She Her Hers
What is the age of the interviewee?
45 to 54
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
Black
Describe the oral history.
Some of the things we discussed included:
Having a diverse career: engineering, substitute teaching, the peace corps, running an international travel business and a nonprofit.
Learning to appreciate and enjoy travel from mother, passing on those experiences to daughter.
Government saying masks weren’t necessary early in the pandemic.
How people and people’s safety wasn’t at the center of pandemic policies; lacking leadership.
Having a packed schedule pre-pandemic and slowing down with the pandemic.
Integrating safety precautions in January 2020.
People not taking the pandemic seriously enough: stress, anger turning to compassion about other people’s choices; people doing the best that they can.
Worries about elderly mother’s safety during the pandemic.
Getting groceries for elders.
Deciding to get vaccinated to protect elders; partner and daughter getting vaccinated.
Running youth leadership development programming; integrating new activities, gardening.
Working with an older historian, James Vincent, and taking programming online to keep him safe.
Hugging less often than pre-pandemic.
Delivering meals to children who relied on school lunch programs.
“The healthcareless system.”
Medical racism and medical theories of Black pain.
Post-traumatic slave syndrome; societal conditioning of Black women to hide physical and emotional pain.
Regular group Zoom calls with family; quiz games about family history and Black history.
How the murder of Michael Brown impacts subsequent protests in St. Louis.
Daughter attending protests during the pandemic.
Concerns about daughter’s university’s policies; online education for an acting major.
Providing emotional support to daughter.
Daughter catching COVID, sharing a hotel room while sick, both masking all day everyday.
Getting COVID safety information from trusted friends.
Capitalism and the CDC guidelines.
Having caught COVID after a family gathering; partner possibly having a false positive.
Working for a better future; people as the center of the future’s solutions.
Learning to do nothing as a way of doing something for oneself.
Sankofa.
Other cultural references: Emmett Till (28 August 1955); Murders by the police: Michael Brown (9 August 2014), Breonna Taylor (13 March 2020), and George Floyd (25 May 2020).
See also:
https://www.goodjourney.org
https://www.ourgoodjourneytogether.com
https://www.stlphilanthropic.org/about-us
https://www.catchafire.org/profiles/1691713/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-care-system-racial-discrimination-equality/
Having a diverse career: engineering, substitute teaching, the peace corps, running an international travel business and a nonprofit.
Learning to appreciate and enjoy travel from mother, passing on those experiences to daughter.
Government saying masks weren’t necessary early in the pandemic.
How people and people’s safety wasn’t at the center of pandemic policies; lacking leadership.
Having a packed schedule pre-pandemic and slowing down with the pandemic.
Integrating safety precautions in January 2020.
People not taking the pandemic seriously enough: stress, anger turning to compassion about other people’s choices; people doing the best that they can.
Worries about elderly mother’s safety during the pandemic.
Getting groceries for elders.
Deciding to get vaccinated to protect elders; partner and daughter getting vaccinated.
Running youth leadership development programming; integrating new activities, gardening.
Working with an older historian, James Vincent, and taking programming online to keep him safe.
Hugging less often than pre-pandemic.
Delivering meals to children who relied on school lunch programs.
“The healthcareless system.”
Medical racism and medical theories of Black pain.
Post-traumatic slave syndrome; societal conditioning of Black women to hide physical and emotional pain.
Regular group Zoom calls with family; quiz games about family history and Black history.
How the murder of Michael Brown impacts subsequent protests in St. Louis.
Daughter attending protests during the pandemic.
Concerns about daughter’s university’s policies; online education for an acting major.
Providing emotional support to daughter.
Daughter catching COVID, sharing a hotel room while sick, both masking all day everyday.
Getting COVID safety information from trusted friends.
Capitalism and the CDC guidelines.
Having caught COVID after a family gathering; partner possibly having a false positive.
Working for a better future; people as the center of the future’s solutions.
Learning to do nothing as a way of doing something for oneself.
Sankofa.
Other cultural references: Emmett Till (28 August 1955); Murders by the police: Michael Brown (9 August 2014), Breonna Taylor (13 March 2020), and George Floyd (25 May 2020).
See also:
https://www.goodjourney.org
https://www.ourgoodjourneytogether.com
https://www.stlphilanthropic.org/about-us
https://www.catchafire.org/profiles/1691713/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-care-system-racial-discrimination-equality/
On what date did you record this oral history?
2022-08-11T10:06