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Camille Bennett          

Social Entrepreneur, Activist & Black Feminist

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, her global perspective stems from living on the island of St.Maarten. Camille Bennett is the Founder and Executive Director of Project Say Something, a nonprofit organization with a mission to To confront anti-Black systems and ideologies, promote reproductive justice, and fight against patriarchal violence using education, community empowerment and advocacy.

After the State of AL passed a bill targeting her and the organization, Bennett founded Project Say Something Direct Action, a c4 organization that focuses on the eradication of anti-Black policies in AL and co-founded Alabama Moves a statewide coalition created to stop Anti-riot legislation and protect protestors on the frontlines of Black liberation.

A 30-year resident of Alabama, Bennett and her husband Founded and Direct Focus-Scope Child Enrichment Centers. The centers focus on holistic child development and Black and brown children. Bennett has also been the Chief facilitator of Living Spirit: Center for Spiritual Oneness since 2012. Her centers focus on reproductive justice, empowering marginalized communities, and cultural competency. Project Say Something, initially a local grassroots effort, mobilized regionally and nationally through coalition building, sustained protests, and advocacy for the political power and humanization of Black Alabamians.

Speech Topics

Go Beyond DEI

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a vast topic. DEI ranges from racism, to sexism to ableism to homophobia. Each component requires attention to truly cultivate an equitable workspace. I help progressive orgs explore the nuances of how whiteness impacts the work space from a Black perspective.

Black Women and the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

White Supremacist culture is pervasive and damaging especially when white dominance and controlling behaviors seep into well meaning "progressive" nonprofit spaces. Black women have always been on the frontlines of racial justice advocacy and movement work yet, we continue to grapple with exploitation, erasure and subpar funding. Black women are still forced to navigate tropes of servitude and martyrdom while "saving the world", their families and their communities and often feel pressure to put their needs last. The Nonprofit industrial complex, a predominantly white space, uses our stories, our labor and our pain as a powerful fundraising mechanism while our needs and the needs of our community are neglected. Black women who are Founders of nonprofit organizations are grossly underfunded and undervalued and lack the autonomy necessary to heal systems of oppression . My talk explores the intersections of misogynoir and the non-profit industrial complex and the white gaze, while empowering audiences to not only name the harm of racism within social justice and nonprofit sectors but work towards repairing the deeply flawed systems within them.

The Fragility of Our Strength: Activism, Mysogynoir and Self Care

Modern gynecology was founded on the backs of Black women. In 1840, Dr.J. Marion Sims built his surgical practice experimenting on Black women in Montgomery, Alabama without anesthesia because he believed they did not experience pain in the same ways white women do. 182 years later, Black women are still forced to navigate tropes of superhuman strength and perseverance while advocating for equity, bodily autonomy and the needs of our families and communities. I am an Activist and Founder of Project Say Something (501c3) and Project Say Something Direct Action (501c4). Since 2014, I have been on the frontlines of racial justice in the Deep South. I have spoken in front of the KKK in full regalia, been targeted by white nationalist organizations and politicians and have received countless death threats because of my advocacy work. These experiences were not only inhumane but left me with battle scars of internalized oppression that led to self harm, neglect and a mental health crisis. I neglected my body and spirit and could not fully show up for my family while attempting to navigate an oppressive system that demands hyper productivity and superhuman strength from Black women. My talk offers audiences an unflinching account of my subconscious attachment to the "strong Black woman" trope and the impact of these false narratives. Together we explore the gifts of vulnerability and femininity and why they often evade Black women.

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