Being A Black Woman In Corporate America

Recently I read a tweet that said that being a Black woman in corporate America is constantly asking yourself if something that was said to you was racist, sexist or a combination of both. Have you ever had someone ask if you understood something simple they asked you to do that even a small child could understand? Been told to send your work through for review even though it is something you have been doing for years? Or my favorite, asked for more challenging assignments and been brushed off while your counterparts are given opportunities repeatedly? When you are working in the corporate environment, it is a struggle to keep your composure when you feel like your intelligence and your ability to actually do your job is constantly being tested. On top of that, on average, for every $1 a White man makes, Black women only make $0.63. Unappreciated, overworked and underpaid? Absolutely not.

Even though I haven’t been playing the corporate game as long as my peers, it seems that in the last few years, more and more Black women have begun to speak up and speak out about their experiences and changing what has been the status quo. We are asking for raises, speaking up and claiming our ideas in these boardrooms and demanding the recognition and support we deserve. For those of you who may not be comfortable with shaking the table in that way, I encourage you to at minimum, become confident enough in yourself and your abilities that you no longer allow your work and potential to be undermined or overlooked. Know that whatever room you are in, you deserve to be there just as much as anyone else, act like it.