In so many of my classes, I am the only individual in the classroom who is at once African-American and female, and in many cases, the only individual who is African-American, period. This is my reality. These are my odds. They are very real to me. At one time, I thought the odds were astonishing – to be one out of 25, 27 or 35. But imagine for a second being one out of 435. Those were the odds that Shirley Chisholm faced when she was elected into Congress in 1968. Her odds were much more significant than mine. I learned from her courage that the danger is not in being presented with odds, but rather in choosing not to face them.

As the first black woman to run for the office of the Presidency of the United States of America, her slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed.” Through her words and her courage, she taught me the meaning and the value of becoming my own woman. I was brought up in a society that conditioned me to accept the idea that I suffered a double drawback because of my race and my gender.

In my experience as a black woman, I cannot tell you a lot about the ways in which discrimination has risen against me. I cannot tell you the ways I have overcome obstacles presented by the chains of gender oppression.

What I can tell you is this. In my experience as a black woman, I have learned to stop looking for discrimination, and obstacles, and hardships. I will never deny their existence. I will never deny the fact that there are some difficulties that are unique to me as a black woman, but I have learned rather to understand that the question can no longer be, for me, whether these hardships, or obstacles, or adversities will arise. They will. Regardless of my race or my gender, they will.

But what I have learned in my experience as a black woman is not to question the source of the discrimination but rather to do everything in my power to challenge it and to conquer it. For me, the question is not whether discrimination will come. It is whether I will come out on top.

This month, as we reverence Black History, I challenge you to look beyond the things that black Americans before us have accomplished. Their contribution is rich, and we relish in their accomplishments every day.

Now it is time to ask, “What am I doing to further that legacy?” For as great as our knowledge and our potential may be, until we activate it, it is stagnant energy lying dormant within us.

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