Rachel Cargle is an African-American activist, public speaker, and author.

Early life

Cargle was raised in

Green, Ohio Green is a city in southeastern Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 27,475 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community between Akron and Canton and is part of the Akron metropolitan area. History Green Township was first ...

by her mother, who has

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. Her father died when she was young. Cargle and her mother lived in

Section 8 housing Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 (), often called Section 8, as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of low-income households in the United States. Fort Lauderdale, Florida Hou ...

in a wealthy suburb, which she stated made her aware of economic differences between herself and her white peers. She attended the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

for two years, studying anthropology and sociology before moving to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

at the age of 23. Cargle later shortly attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

before dropping out without graduating, following an April 2019 incident in which a black male student was followed by university police after declining to present his student identification upon request.

Career

In 2017, a photo of Cargle and her friend holding signs at the

Women's March Women's March may refer to: * Women's March on Versailles, a 1789 march in Paris * Women's Sunday, a 1908 suffragette march in London * Woman Suffrage Procession, a 1913 march and rally in Washington, D.C. * Women's March (South Africa), a 1956 mar ...

went viral; Cargle's sign read, "If You Don’t Fight for All Women You Fight for No Women." Cargle began to learn more about feminist issues, and later spoke at several universities with her popular lecture series titled "Unpacking White Feminism". Cargle has fought to promote

Intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

in her lectures and work."

Layla Saad Layla Saad is a British social-media figure and author. After starting an Instagram trend #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, she developed her work into the digital ''Me and White Supremacy Workbook''. It was published in 2020 as the book ''Me and White Supr ...

has stated that Cargle is more willing than some activists to engage in debate and thereby educate her social media followers. Mainly focused on anti-racism activism, Cargle's

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account grew from 355,000 to 1.7 million followers in the years since 2016. After a

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...

campaign, Cargle founded the ''Loveland Foundation'', which works to increase access to therapy for Black women and girls. Cargle has criticized what she describes as the commodification of wellness. In 2019, Cargle was studied at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and with Imani Perry of Princeton University. In 2020 she opened a writing center and bookstore in Akron, Ohio called ''Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre.'' Cargle signed a book deal with Dial Press, although as of 2022 no book has yet been published.

Personal life

Cargle is divorced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cargle, Rachel 21st-century American writers American feminists Living people 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers