Opinion, By Chama St. Louis

I have long admired women that have held strong amid fierce opposition.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a tenacious spirit and a firm exterior that I always connected with. As a woman of color, I’ve had to be tough too, and the call to embrace my inner warrior is stronger now than ever.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg went out like a warrior. While she was in pain and sick, she fought on for all of us women because she knew it was her duty and that so many of us out here were relying on her for our own survival.

Women have always had to be warriors — whether it be for our families, our children, our bodies or our health — it’s always been a battle. I am grateful that Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for the equality of women in our country. Yet, the battle is not yet won, and the time is now for women everywhere to heed the call and embrace our warrior spirits to continue our fight for justice.

Like all leaders, Ruth was not infallible. Like so many white feminist leaders, particularly of her generation, her justice lens did not always embrace women like me. Her comments regarding Colin Kaepernick and the NFL protests for example are ones that I find disappointing to hear from a woman that stood for equal rights. However, I am able to recognize that while she may not have done as much to advance racial equity, her commitment to gender equity helped create the space that I stand in now.

As women, and particularly women of color, we owe it to ourselves and our communities to take the space that women like her won for us and fight against all forms of oppression. The failure to win justice for Breonna Taylor’s family is proof that the fight for equity is not over. Women’s bodies and the bodies of black and brown people like me continue to be a casualty of our unjust systems.

The fight for equity needs to continue here in Peoria, too. Blacks are pulled over by police at a significantly higher rate than whites, according to analysis of 2015 statistics. We have also had five police-related deaths in the last three years.

That’s just one reason Peoria has been rated as one of the worst places to live if you are black. This rating is also in large part due to deep disparities between health and income. Economic injustice is visible across our community. We have one of the poorest zip codes in the country, and our unemployment rate is above the national average.

Polluters poison our air and water and our wombs with toxic heavy metals and deadly gases. More often than not these polluters site their facilities in low-income communities and communities of color. They choke the air that our children breathe and force them to rely on costly medications to survive.

These are not all issues that RBG championed. These are the battles she leaves behind. As we reflect on her legacy we cannot simply acknowledge all that she won, but we must honor her warrior spirit by doing our best to emulate it. We must continue the fights she left behind while channeling her fierce advocacy into battles of our own.

To honor the memory of RBG and Breonna Taylor, two women from very different worlds, but both emblazoned forever in the scars of justice, we must build upon what they left behind. We must fight. We must be warriors.