Finding Coverage at Rutgars University

Growing up in the rural town of Browns Mills, being a Black girl was like a dime a dozen; it held no signifying factors for me. Whether you were White, Black, Spanish, or any other group, the people I grew up with accepted everyone despite it. Such acceptance while enjoyable, did not fortify me for the later struggles I would confront after leaving the socially idyllic neighborhood. Since my town was accepting of everyone there was never a need to learn about or claim aspects of my diversity. My biggest personal claim to diversity in my childhood was the being great (many times over) granddaughter of to a Seminole Chief. Even this story, passed down through my family, was hard to prove. I had a disinterest in carrying over my families oral histories instead finding pride in being like everyone else. This fact began to change when I attend college for both the better and worse.
Despite my racially diverse upbringing, I found myself in a racial enclave at Rutgers University, a hard existence for someone who believed their heritage held no cultural significance. I did not understand the personal and social implications of only having friends who were Black. This isolated me from those of other races but brought a kinship I previously had not experienced. I am a Black woman from America; a fact initially despised, I learned to embrace it my later school years. Being Black but culturally American comes with its own values and struggles outside of those from the larger group of descendants from the African Diaspora. I came to understand, while growing up without defined racial and cultural lines it made me more susceptible to the negative aspects of defining yourself. It left me confused, searching, and needing that THING to demarcate ...

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... categorized myself based solely on my skin color. Through my own cultural education I came to understand that my diversity is summarized in my uniqueness. I was able to answer those questions my college experienced presented to me. While growing up, labeling myself racially and cultural was unimportant because it offered no extra gains socially. Since I was thrust from my ignorance I strove to confidently say what defines me. It is through this purist that I bring a unique perspective to the legal profession. I am a middle child of an African-American military family who to slavery in the South and Native American leadership. I am the makeup of my experiences and those of my ancestors’ struggles and trumps. I am a woman who holds her own in a male dominated world. All of these amongst many others outline who I am and what I do. I am diversity, I am my Blackness.