Black in America

I have been doing a lot of reading about what it means to be Black in America and have come up with ten things that help to understand what it is like. 1 Feeling nervous and strange walking into a room where I was the only Black. 2 Watching people watch me strangely when I was the only Black in a room. 3 Having a father who had to wait a year to go to medical school because they only allowed 2 Blacks and 2 Jews in a class -- in Michigan. 4 Feeling like I had to be smarter, run faster, jump higher--not just metaphorically speaking--to be considered equal in corporate America. 5 Being called a "double-dip" employment hire--Black and female. 6 Fuming when White people call me or any other Black "articulate" because we don't talk like some stereotype. 7 Being asked in an interview at the first law firm I joined "why don't you want to work at a Black firm". It was 1985. 8 Feeling like I had to leave part of the real me at home every day when I went to work in corporate America. 9 Feeling like the corporate focus on "diversity" is a way to avoid addressing the issue of race head on -- and maybe helping to move past it. 10 Watching people of all colors skirt around the issue of race because talking about it is uncomfortable. I believe these are honest evaluations of how Black people see the world around them and I wonder if President Obama feels the same way. I know from my readings that Condi Rice felt many of these things. It was reported that she was often the youngest and smartest person in the room and almost always the only Black