“Insert Own Emotional Connection”

They say I am an African American. My diploma says I am an engineer & political scientist. My profession says I am a founder & marketer. My closet says I am a trendy. My Instagram says I am a photographer. My speech says I am incredibly educated.

But, all they say is that I am African American or, simply put, Black.

I am a creative, still trying to find my way in a world that has progressed and regressed all in the same breathe. Where we can have a black president & rampant police brutality all in the same lifetime.

A world where, just now, minorities are seeing the limelight in the box-office (Thank you Lord they finally made Black Panther) and it’s 2018.

It’s trendy for society and marketing campaigns to push “inclusion.” We say we are pushing, well promoting it right?

Well, then what explanation can be given when you notice a black individual walking down the street and a tightening of the grip on your purse?

Or,

What explanation can be given when you walk into an ad agency of marshmellows and you’re a little too burnt to not have heads turn left & right.

I am the voices of many, a circle stuck in a world that is so vastly square. I don’t quite fit into many spaces neatly. And when it is quickly seen that I can’t be put into a box and tied into a pretty little bow, the world turns upside down.

When you are defined by something that can be easily seen and never “un” you are both blessed and cursed with the opportunity or lack-there-of.

So what do you do? What can you do?

Put on your headphones, take one step at a time, block out the noise and stay your course, because things will never get better until you make it so.