“The bed that I currently sleep on is the first new bed I’ve gotten since I was 16… I think housing is a right and everybody deserves a bed.”

Q1: Tell us about your up-bringing. Where were you born?

I was born in Alameda. I vaguely remember Alameda as a little kid but San Leandro was like tried-and-true—that's where I grew up. 

I grew up in a rented house. 

By the time my mom left after 24 years, half the electricity in the house wasn’t working, the ceiling was leaking, and [the landlord/property managers] left it to shit, then kicked us out with four months notice, if that. 

They sold it to an Asian family; I used to drive by to see what they were going to do with the house and found out they didn't end up moving in until a long time after we moved out because I think the house needed so much work.

—I had a great childhood there. Growing up my house was the spot and when I posted that my mother was moving out, so many kids wrote me. 

I graduated from high school in 2005; kids weren’t openly trans or gay at the time and it was hard —they literally had to fight all the time because of how often they were getting teased. But my house was always very welcoming. 

Multiple friends stayed and lived with us because they got kicked out or moved to Patterson and wanted to continue school in San Leandro. The police didn’t really get called until we were a little bit older. 

I didn't realize how impactful my house was until after we left. 

My mom is half White/ half Native American and my father is half Black/ half White. My dad left the house when I was about 12 years-old and moved out because my parents separated, so when he left our house, it kind of became like ‘everybody was in the house’.

In 2017, Selina’s mother landlord sold the house after 24 years as a tenant

Q2: Your landlord sold the house in 2017, where did you live next? And were you living at your mother's house up until it was sold in 2017 or did you move out prior?

When I got pregnant with my daughter, that's when my mom was like, “okay you got to go,” so I left the house and didn’t live there anymore by 2012. When I had her, I lived 9 months in San Mateo. I tried to get a place but San Mateo was hella expensive back then for a one bedroom and we needed at least a two bedroom because there were four of us. 

By the time my daughter was 1, we moved to Hayward—so across town, and I lived there for five years with my daughter’s dad and my son. My daughter’s dad was an asshole; he ended up being abusive, which in hindsight he had been our entire relationship, it just comes in different forms so it took me some time to realize. I think the rent was like $1,400 and by the time we left in 2017, it was pushing $2,000. Yeah, crazy spike—that was for a two bedroom, two bath. After that, I moved into a one bedroom off E St. and that was like $1,600 - $1,700. At the time that didn’t include water or trash—you know the taxing that they do is crazy. So I slept on a couch for three years just to get out of an abusive relationship with my daughter’s father

Selina slept on a couch from 2017-2020 and moved into her own two bedroom apartment March 2020.

Q3: How was your mental state during that period of time?

Oh, I worked a lot—I’m a workaholic. I just read something last night that said Black and Brown women overly work themselves to avoid depression and suicide and I was like, “hey you’re yelling at me.” When I think about it, I was freshly single in 2017. My daughter’s dad and I  were together for eight years and that was all of my twenties. I never really got to date; he was super manipulative, so I had to go through deprogramming my mind from mental and emotional abuse. I stayed home a lot—I actually lost a lot of friends during that time because they only knew trauma Selina or drama and abused Selina, but that wasn't me anymore and they didn’t like that. They didn’t like that I was getting fit or being successful. And these are friends I had since like Kindergarten. I lost my best friend during that time. There's been a lot of death in the last five years—now that I think about it, sleeping was hard. 

The bed that I currently sleep on is the first new bed I’ve gotten since I was 16. You know, people take all that stuff for granted. I think housing is a right and everybody deserves a bed.

Q5: In one of your last protests for Steven Taylor, you did land acknowledgment—do you  identify as Indigenous?

I identify really strongly with my Indigenous side. I'm from the Tohono O’odham land and right now that’s where the wall is being built. They’re knocking over Saguaros which are cactuses that take 150 years to grow. That’s where my grandmother was born and raised. I have another tribe called Paiute from Big Pine California. The reason why I identify so Indigenous is because she was my only grandparent growing up. And there aren’t many Indigenous hairdressers. There’s only one or two that I‘ve found on Instagram. 

I’m very vocal about my identity like, “Yes, I am mixed and I don't hide that I’m White or Black, but I don’t walk the Earth as a Black woman and I don’t walk the Earth as a White woman, I only see Indigenous.” I really advocate for everyone, but I advocate really strongly for Indigenous because it is so forgotten about. 

Q6: Have you been able to get involved with organizations?

American Indian Movement started here —; they actually occupied Alcatraz Island in the late 60s—early 70s, and worked with the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets and various coalitions; I hope to see them come back. 

Honestly, for me, it’s been kind of hard to network with Natives here. My tribe is from Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico and  is poor; we have a casino but we don't have enough support from the government. We have something called per capita, where I probably have received two thousand dollars in my lifetime but a lot of tribes, like Oregon tribes, get like 20 grand because the casinos do well. There are rich natives out there and I get asked all the time like, “Oh do you have any money?— Oh did you get money from the government?” and I’m like, “Hell nah.” My tribe has to use it for FEMA because we have flash foods and all this extreme weather — we use the money to support one another. It’s third world down there; I always say it's America’s biggest and dirtiest secret.