100 Women We Love: Morgane Veronique Richardson

“As a young woman of color, I felt that my voice was silenced in discussions surrounding social justice and equality. Many policy makers want to implement social change for communities of color, but they don’t want to hear the changes we feel need to happen,” Morgane Richardson declares. “So, I am an anti-racist feminist activist because I want to give women of color the platform to share our own stories and take part in the decision-making process across the political pyramid.” An established digital-media producer, CUNY Adjunct Professor and alumna of the United Nations University for Peace, in 2008 Richardson founded Refuse the Silence: Women of Color in Academia Speak Out, to reconcile the hegemony within elite academia and promote more diverse campuses. Her reflections on feminism, race and the academic world have been published in numerous national publications, and in 2010, More magazine featured her among the “New Feminists You Need To Know.” Today, Richardson is working on an anthology examining how social media has allowed the feminist movement to connect and unite activists across racial lines. In her spare time, she serves as a birth doula, speaks at conferences and colleges around the world, and travels the world with her wife Alexandra. –QW