Young, Gifted and Black

I have a bachelor's degree in Communication, a masters in Written Communication and a Ph.D. in Community Psychology combined with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience in corporate America. I am unemployed in the traditional sense - and have been since December 2017 when I was fired resulting from filing a racial discrimination complaint against Verizon.

I entered 2018 in recovery mode. With June 2018 graduation date around the corner and preparing for defense, I discovered that I was hacked in what may have been an attempt at identity theft - and among other things, my dissertation was targeted. I rescued my dissertation, defended it, and graduated!

I have a doctoral degree, now what? I shifted my focus once again to get a traditional job. I applied to one position after, stacking up hundreds of applications - even reverting to applying for jobs in the sales/ marketing industry - a sector in which I have never had difficulty securing employment. Nothing. Was I blacklisted? Possibly. But I would argue that there's a bigger problem.

The experience made me realize that a Black woman with a Ph.D. may not necessarily improve her chances of traditional employment with an office, a bi-weekly paycheck, and health insurance. In administration positions in corporate, academia, government for and non-profit sectors in which someone with my credentials would hold positions, Blacks as a group, and Black women especially are still a drop in the ocean. Adding to the complexity - I am a Black woman activist who speaks openly against racial discrimination and injustice and has devoted myself to fighting against race, class, sex and gender oppression against marginalized groups. In the grand scheme, I may be perceived as one who does not follow the be-silent and stay-invisible script that was written for Black women and which many are expected to follow if we want to get a job - any job in the construct of the American system. In this construct, one might arguably perceive me as a square peg that does not fit into the systemic round hole. Despite what many analysts call a strong economic climate, it became clear that this does not include someone with my combined experience, education, race and gender.

A close examination of the issues set me on a course to exploring business ownership as a way to take control of my socio-economic progress. I will continue to apply to positions for which I am qualified and can bring value, but to achieve true freedom and financial security one must have a hand in steering his or her ship. Such has been and remain the socio-economic reality for many Blacks in this country. In her song, Young, Gifted and Black, Nina Simone sings about boys and girls who needs to know that there's a world in which they belong and can live up to their potential. It starts with us understanding that the space in which we are granted to carve out a life in this system is not big enough. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to reimagine the life want to live and build it- that may be our only way to true freedom and socio-economic solvency.