More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say)

by Elaine Welteroth

We don’t prioritize our time with ourselves. We rarely set aside moments to be still, to access our center. And the bottom line is, when we don’t focus on our inner light, it dims.

When a little Black girl is born, she is born with the promise of a better future; her life represents new hope for breaking generational chains—of systemic oppression, of discrimination, of abuse—that have plagued our lineage.

But you know what they say about God and plans—we make ’em, God laughs.

“Baby girl, a woman should never compete for space in the mirror with her man.”

Like most Black folks in the ’burbs, I was often the only one: in my immediate friend group, in my classrooms, in Girl Scouts, at gymnastics, on my softball and volleyball teams. You learn to get used to being one of few brown bodies in White spaces. And I had gotten really good at it.

Biraciality is a genetic fact, not a racial identity. Not yet, at least. Because as long as I was moving through a White world, I’d be seen as a Black woman—and treated accordingly.

When your dreams are bigger than the places you find yourself in, sometimes you need to seek out your own reminders that there is more. And there is always more waiting for you on the other side of fear. —

To keep moving forward. To keep pushing beyond whatever feels confining. To keep searching for where the magic is. To continue expanding, staying open to being stretched. And allowing room to be completely awed by how much better it gets along the way.

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. WINNIE-THE-POOH, POOH’S GRAND ADVENTURE: THE SEARCH

“If you know what you want, ask for it. And be specific. You might just get it.”

future, I would just tell them, “This is between me and God.”

culture, and after experiencing it firsthand, I wrote a story for the June/July 2015 issue exploring how Afrocentric hairstyles in White spaces can in itself be a form of activism.

“It’s okay to say ‘Black,’ you guys. We don’t have to whisper it. It’s not a bad word.”

This irks me !

There is no glory in a grind that literally grinds you down to dust.