How Role in ‘The Chi’ Made Yolonda Ross a Breast Cancer Advocate

July 8, 2022 – Yolonda Ross went all-in when she discovered that the only mother she performs in Showtime’s acclaimed sequence The Chi has breast most cancers.

In season 4, episode seven, Ross, who performs Jada, shaved her lengthy hair on digital camera, bringing to life the very actual struggles her character – and precise breast most cancers sufferers – face earlier than starting breast most cancers therapy.

“When I found out my character was going to be going through cancer, the one thing I said about it was that I didn’t want it to be a TV or film cancer,” says Ross, 47, who can be a author, director, and activist who has starred in Netflix’s The Get Down, ABC’s How To Get Away with Murder and Denzel Washington’s Antwone Fisher, simply to call a couple of of her roles.

“I didn’t want to just put a scarf on my head and suddenly I had cancer. It was too important a moment for that,” she says.

Ross’s preparation for the position started off-camera. She researched organizations in Chicago’s South Side similar to Equal Hope, the Tatisa C. Joiner Foundation, and the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET), all of that are serving to Black ladies with breast most cancers. That’s when she started studying concerning the well being disparities Black ladies with breast most cancers face.

“I wanted to sit down with women who had gone through cancer or are currently going through it,” she says. “Meeting with them was more than I expected. They touched me more than I was expecting to be touched.”

Talking concerning the emotional aspect of breast most cancers was particularly significant to Ross.

“There’s talking about cancer as someone going through it, and then there’s talking about it as a Black person going through cancer,” she says. “We don’t talk about stuff as it is. So that’s another thing we need to do to overcome any stigma. Talking about emotions and talking about health will help, especially since that’s a lot of the problem with us getting certain care. We don’t talk about it when we’re feeling something isn’t quite right, and that keeps us from getting the care we need.”

Ross continued to attach with the Chicago-area ladies who had been getting most cancers therapies in addition to the leaders of every group even after the season started.

“I learned how some of the organizations are helping with breast cancer prevention and some are helping change the structure of things in hospitals so that when they see a brown woman come in, they don’t get into a certain mindset and don’t follow through on the work they should be doing with her,” she says.

Letting individuals know that these well being care teams exist was one other large aim of hers.

“Some of these organizations are right there in the neighborhood,” she says. “A woman two doors down might not even know this. She gets breast cancer and doesn’t know this organization is right there and could help her. That’s what I really wanted to help with.”

Before lengthy, the actor was requested to tackle much more essential roles inside every nonprofit.

“They would have events that would come up, and they would ask me if I would attend,” she says. “It was that easy. I learned about each organization and soon enough became part of them.”

Her advocacy finally impressed a $100,000 donation from the Feinberg Foundation that was then granted to those grassroots Chicago organizations and, final October, she co-hosted Beauty is Me, a photograph exhibit and fundraiser the place she unveiled her 5 portraits of breast most cancers survivors. Then, in May, she was honored by The Creative Coalition for her advocacy work.

Ross says it’s a no brainer to make use of her platform to assist others.

“I know I’m not the biggest star out there, but I believe that if something moves you enough to talk about it, why not use your platform to help others,” she says. “I know that women of color are fighting this fight, and if I can say something or do something to help shine a light on these organizations or these doctors or find ways for people to help, I’m going to, and this is going to be part of my life forever.”