“As a Black woman, the greatest challenge I faced to fully embracing my Black womanhood was others not accepting my intelligence. Throughout my K-12 educational journey, I was always in honors or advanced placement (AP) courses. Although I went to an extremely diverse high school in Oak Park, Illinois, my honors and AP classes were quite homogeneous in race, ethnicity, and even gender to a certain extent. Often, I was either the only student of color or one of two students of color in my honors classes.
I recall one time in my honors algebra class during sophomore year my White male teacher loudly scolded me in my face for doing something that (1) I did not even know was wrong and (2) all the White boys were doing much worse but never received a reprimand for their behavior. This teacher threatened to send me to the principal’s office and once he was done yelling in my face, I nearly burst into tears. Fortunately, I did have a close friend from the swim team in that class who comforted me at the time and attempted to understand the isolation and depreciation I felt in that class as an intelligent, young Black woman. At that moment in that honors class, I fully felt how the combination of my race and intelligence could unsettle and irritate others who were unaccustomed to Black brilliance.”
