It's commencement speech time. It's cap in the air time. It's taking a look at the world as an adult for the first time. It's time to enter the game of life, because ready or not, real life is ready for you. Unfortunately, for 16 Black female West Point cadets graduating this year, real life got a jump on them. Facing an investigation by the military academy for what's become a firestorm over the racially incendiary act of raising one's fist in victory, these Black female cadets are getting a glimpse of what they'll face while defending an ignorant and unforgiving America. But before you judge them, you need to understand the whole story.
Being female in a traditionally male culture can be challenging to say the least, so one can only imagine the challenges a Black female will endure in order to ensure her survival in that culture. Alone, most wouldn't stand much of a chance, considering the deficit of respect and low expectations they face from day one of entering the institution. Without building a solid crew of support amongst themselves, it would be virtually impossible to withstand the daily barrage of innuendo and blatant racist/sexist remarks just to fit in. Sure, there's always the exception, but from the following quotes, you'll see these Black women needed each other.
West Point Grad Mary Tobin shared the following on her Facebook page: "Our attrition rates are on par with the class at large, but can you imagine what it must feel like to live, train, study, eat, cry, laugh, struggle, and succeed in an environment where for 4 years, the majority of the people there don't look like you, it's hard for them to relate to you, they oftentimes don't understand you, and the only way to survive is to shrink your blackness or assimilate."
"We don't talk about the microagressions that minority cadets experience every single day. We don't talk about how many times we have to let racial slurs or crass racial jokes roll off our backs because all we want to do is graduate. I don't talk about how as a black female leader within the Corps, I was told time and time again, that I was a good leader because I was 'not like the rest of them.' "
When you're outnumbered hundreds to one, you depend on those around you who are experiencing your experience. The strength of spirit, the mental toughness and raw determination it took to survive in a hostile living and learning environment could only be recognized by another Black female cadet because their White counterparts are oblivious to the Black cadet's experience.
While making it through four years of any military institution is no cakewalk, a Black female succeeding at West Point has to have a lot more than just the right stuff. And by anyone's measure, these women could be the best of what West Point produces this year, considering they had to achieve the same goals as their White counterparts while dragging the baggage of race and gender around for four hard fought years.
Bottom line: With only 17 Black female cadets out of a 1000 in the 2016 graduating class at West Point, it shouldn't surprise anyone that this group of unique women would develop a bond beyond the school's so-called code of conduct. So, when it came time to take their well deserved victory lap in celebration of what so few had the right stuff to do, they proudly grabbed a fist full of sky to tell the world they have arrived. From this observer's perspective, there's nothing but pride in their stride and no apologies should be expected. Podcast below!
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