Fight The System Together. Overcome The System Together.

By Shynelle Kissi on August 22, 2016

For the longest time, I believed I was born with the double burden of being a Black female. We’re already aware that “the system,” no matter what specific system we find ourselves in, was designed for the White male with archaic gender roles in mind.

Females, then, typically find they have to push, shove, and fight the system to reach the same level of their male counterparts. To make matters worse, the perception of Blacks here in the U.S. doesn’t help — the perception that we’re all lazy, undeserving criminals. The media, especially, aids in perpetuating both of these antiquated ideas, preventing others of my demographic from getting ahead.

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To me, it couldn’t get more discouraging than this. How am I supposed to be great and make something of myself when the system I find myself in isn’t even designed for me?

All of that changed when I saw a post on Tumblr about Ibtihaj Muhammad, a Black Muslim Female on the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team. This post was not only humbling, but also mind opening. With all the Islamophobia in the United States, there’s no way I could be more disadvantaged than she is.

I don’t mean this to come across as me sitting on a high horse, or me thinking I’m finally “better off” than someone. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It dawned on me that I have no excuse. If she, a person thought to be disadvantaged from three different angles could do it, than who am I to believe I couldn’t? Who is this distorted system to say I couldn’t?

Ibtihaj’s story taught me, in all honesty, that according to the way the system works, and what statistics show us, she’s got the worst lot —  she was born female, which automatically puts her at 78 cents to every male dollar earned. Then, she also happens to be Black. So, of that 78 cents she’s actually only making 64. To add to that, she’s Muslim, and we already know many Americans see that as a big no-no.

In being woke about the disadvantages facing my community, Ibtihaj’s story made me realize that I can’t only focus on my specific demographic of Christian, first-generational, Black female, and leave it at that. Rather, if I’m going to claim to be woke, I need to be aware of all that’s happening within all of my demographics. Ibtihaj is still a Black female, and I need to learn and advocate for all who fall within any of my demographics.

I realized that we can’t only try to change the system for our specific niches, but rather we should be putting these minor differences aside, and trying to improve the whole. I believe it’s only when we see legitimate improvements on the macro level, can we then move forward to improve on the micro level.

It is people like Ibtihaj who, rather than disowning their identities once they’ve made it, use their newfound platform to bring up everyone who shares that identity; they use their platform to gather a wide range of people to fight the system and bring about positive change.

It is people like Ibtihaj who remind and motivate Black females, like me, that we can rise above the stigma.

It is people like Ibtihaj that every Black female should aspire to be.

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