Why This Book Demanded to be Written

I didn't always talk about racism. I didn't always see it. My skin, my hair,
my cadence, that was just who I was. I'm going to sound like the people that say, "I don't see color," but I didn't see my own. I thought the way I was treated; turned down for jobs, passed over when I raised my hand in class, told to change how I spoke, expected to be remedial, followed in stores, I thought that was everyone's experience. Heavily surveilled, doubted, questioned, I thought that was life.

I'm that person, that when I see a book or a TED Talk or hear a podcast or read a blog all I can think is, I can do that. When I look at what I've produced, I realize that it forced me to be introspective. You can't create if you dont know who you are and that is how I found not only my voice but the system that has been interwoven throughout society, to silence it. When I wrote Black Lives Matter, I realized that not everyone thinks so, at the very least, not everyone thinks it needs to be proclaimed. When I said, black women are receiving more advanced degrees but aren't getting paid for it,  I realized I'm one of those women.

You can't change anything until you can. Meaning, you can't fight injustice until you realize where it is, (EVERYWHERE).
The Only Black Girl in the Room let me see. Writing it helped me examine how deep hatred goes. In its pages I write about my own sexual assault, mental illness, my black experience, what it means to be viewed as a girl and then as a women, when your mind doesn't feel it is either. I wrote about motherhood as a women of color, who is denied the basic priviledge of being listened to by their own doctors. I wrote about working in academia, where everyone is educated but continue to hold tightly to their biased perceptions. I didn't write it to make anyone give up. I wrote it because the more I talked about this book the more, "me too's," I received. I want people to read this book and say, I'm not alone, but I also want them to pass it on. Bring it into the classroom, the dinner table, and introduce it to your book club because these are the discussions we need to be having.

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
-Maya Angelou