Above it all, the first thing you see when you look at me

Is that I’m a black woman.

The first thing that’s noticed about me is my brown skin and then the assumptions shortly after that.

It’s exhausting.

I have to work 10x harder to be half as good as anyone else. And I’m exhausted.

It’s frustrating because as black women we are held to extremely high and unfair expectations.

We have to be soft and hard at the same time. We have to be submission and independent at the same time.

Everyone else gets to speak up and out and they’re encouraged and uplifted.

But when we do it we are depicted as too emotional or too angry. We aren’t in control of our emotions.

Unfair expectations. Unfair standards.

It’s exhausting. And I’m exhausted.

Because I am and will always be a black woman first.

Regardless of my credentials, my degrees, my intellect, my pedigree, my resume. I will always immediately be identified by the fact that I am a black woman.

I am tired.

I am tired.