First off, yes I am a black person living in America.  I am a 35-year-old triple (black, woman, and Muslim) minority.  Now that that’s been addressed, let’s view the scrutiny I may face on a daily basis.  Many times because of my race, I’m told that opportunity was only afforded to me because I was Black (ex. affirmative action).  It doesn’t matter if you were the best or were well qualified and earned your achievement (getting into a prestigious school, getting a promotion) the assumption from many may be you received it because of your race.  This is a horrible assumption.  You are indirectly telling someone that they do not belong and are not as good as someone else.  Affirmative action was created as a means to give people who are discriminated against an opportunity.  It doesn’t mean that they don’t have the qualifications.  It’s just giving them an opened door.  But that’s the reality that someone of color (especially a Black person) faces.

As a woman, we’re taught it’s a man’s world, but if we play our cards right, we may be able to be let in the all boy’s club.  We are often indirectly taught that men are smarter than women, and for a corporation/business to successfully run, we need a man to run it.  Even though the percentage of fortune 500 women CEOs is 4%, it’s still women who are CEOs.  Some of the companies include: General Motors, Hewlett Packard, IBM, PepsiCo, Xerox, Avon, and Campbell Soup just to name a few.  This shows that not only women can work at these large companies, but they can run them and do it well.  So I salute you ladies by showing little girls everywhere that if she can do it, so can I.

Being a Muslim in this country at this moment is so challenging.  The fear of Islamophobia is so real that if you “look” or you name is “suspicious”, you are questioned or even worse.  I got my reality check a few years back.  I got married in October 2013.  Being the person I am (Type A), my husband and I applied for our passports in July of that year.  We applied the exact same day.  Everything was the same (obviously picture and names were different) on our passports.  Anyway we had to come through customs in Orlando from Jamaica (where we honeymooned).  My husband went right through with no problems.  They looked at my passport, then looked at me.  I was then asked what I was doing in Jamaica and how long I was there.  I politely told them I was on my honeymoon and was there for 4 days.  Then they asked me to step out of line and go to an office because they had to check something out.  My husband knew what the deal was so he just went to baggage claim to get our luggage.  Before I could even really sit down (maybe about 90 seconds passed), they told me I was free to go.  I guess because my record is so squeaky clean (I haven’t even been fired from a job) that was why my delay was so quick.  But still, that interaction put on sour note on my wonderful trip I just had.  I started questioning should I drop my maiden name all together, because my original plan was to hyphenate.  But once I calmed down, I stuck with my original plan.

I’m not going to let fear stop me from doing me.  So the question that lies is what can we do if we are one, two, or three of these minority groups in America?  It’s really no black or white (no pun intended) answer to this question.  When dealing with someone who does already have preconceived notions about your particular demographic group, your best bet is to just prove them wrong.  You can show someone better that you can tell them.  I know you’re probably thinking, that’s not going to work, but you never know.  All you can do is just be you.  Forget about those negative stereotypes that may exist.  A stereotype does not define you, cause at the end of the day, you have to live your life for you and do what’s best for you.  If in the process you make someone better by learning to accept someone who is different from them, then cool.  But you have to keep pushing and do not let obstacles stand in the way of you succeeding.