By: Cassidy Kusumoto

The Birth of the Women of Color Coalition

“I mean it was hard. Suddenly I was the President, the outreach coordinator, the event planner, the treasurer,” explains 21-year-old Yasi Milani, “And I came to the realization like, ‘Shit, how am I going to do this,’ because everything depended on me.” She smiles and shakes her head as she tells her story.

Yasi was born in Iran but grew up in New Hyde Park, New York. Living an hour away from Manhattan, Yasi grew to love the busy and diverse city lifestyle in comparison to her quiet hometown. From the old couple working the Biryani cart to the tattooed men selling graffiti art, cultures in the city flourished.

When Yasi moved to Eugene, Oregon, the culture shock hit hard. As she started to see that diversity didn’t thrive in Eugene the same way as it did in New York, she also came to a rough realization: she was going to a predominantly-white school in a predominantly-white town in a predominantly-white state.

That’s when she came up with the idea to make a group for women of color to come together and connect. She and a group of friends came up with plans and ideas for what this group would be but they never really executed it. Eventually, many of the girls began graduating until Yasi was the last one left with the hope of creating this group. That’s when she realized if she wanted this group to come to life, she had to make it happen. This started her journey to create the Women of Color Coalition. She came up with concrete plans for the group including applying for grants, scheduling meetings, and recruiting an executive team.

“Planning everything in the beginning…it kicked my ass. I applied for a grant from the Holden Center and only received $1,000. And I know in order to get more funding I needed more support, so it got to the point where literally every woman of color I saw I would tell them about the WOCC and encourage them to come to meetings,” Yasi laughs.

Since deciding to create the group, Yasi has spent any free time out of school and her job making it all come together. “The WOCC is literally her baby,” close friend and WOCC member Hanaa Mohammed says, “she’s majoring in Human Physiology, one of the busiest majors ever. But seriously any free time she has she’s putting into the WOCC. It’s so important to her.”

Since starting the group in Fall 2016, the growth Yasi has seen the WOCC go through has been incredibly rewarding. Seeing the amount of women now involved and passionate about the group has made it all worth it. “One day we’ll have a WOCC fashion show,” she says, “Seeing women in fashion from their culture? Can’t wait.”