Why A Black Woman With Harvard Credentials Is Still a Black Woman

Written by Areva Martin and Narrated by Marie T. Russell. Editor's Note: While the article focuses on the current situation for black women, many of the conclusions can be applied to women in general. Miami attorney Loreal Arscott was getting ready for work one morning when she hesitated. Scheduled to appear in court that day, she debated whether to put her hair into a bun to make her colleagues feel more comfortable. She was reminded of the comments she'd heard many times before as people compared her curly and straightened hairstyles. In addition, as a Black woman, she needed to worry constantly about her performance in court. Would she be seen as "too aggressive?" Would she do a disservice to her client because of her passion for her work? Ms. Arscott's experience offers the smallest glimpse into what professional Black women endure every day. As an attorney who graduated at the top of my class from Harvard Law, I can tell you that a Black woman with Harvard credentials is still a Black woman. I think back to serving as a summer associate in one of New York's most storied law firms. My peers and I were excelling in school, standing out from our talented classmates at law schools across the country. Many of us were offered positions at the firm upon graduating. But despite it being a somewhat diverse class of associates, the people running that firm today, two decades later, are still white men. Successful women are seen as a threat? Michelle Obama graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law. As first lady of the United States, she faced constant criticism, from cruel comments about outfits that bared her shoulders to hateful questions about her femininity. In an episode of her podcast, she talks about being both targeted for abuse and invisible to white people, even after she'd reached the highest levels of government: "You know, we don't exist. And when we do exist, we exist as a threat. And that—that's exhausting." Black women reaching the highest levels of success, like our former first lady, are not immune to the microaggressions prevalent in our workplaces, from "compliments" about how articulate we are to "advice" about striving too aggressively to succeed to assumptions that we're in court as an interpreter or defendant. I spent years being... Continue Reading at InnerSelf.com (plus audio/mp3 version of article) Music By Caffeine Creek Band, Pixabay Narrated by Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com Copyright 2021 by Areva Martin. All Rights Reserved.