Some folks have asked about my profile background image - that's the 26 story public housing building I spent the first 20 years of my life in. It's a reminder to me of who I am and where I came from - literally and spiritually. To all the girls from the projects: I see you

You see brown and Black girls from the hood arent supposed to get this far. Not matter how graceful, intelligent we are we're always assumed to be less than. Especially in spaces not meant for us.

And often girls from the projects are only "exceptional" if they end up at "exceptional" schools: Harvard Law for example. I didn't go to the Ivies. I earned my spot with degrees from public universities.

What Black and brown girls from these communities DONT often have are the mentors and the networks and the money to be able to make choices or navigate institutional racism or sexism.

That's why I have that photo there. For all of the talk about diversity/inclusion there's still an expectation that we have to do the extraordinary. Guess what - surviving public housing as a poor POC IS extraordinary.