recognizing, as i write my final paper for The Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity course, that myself and my kinfolk were never supposed to read or write. i was never supposed to study, let alone create cultural artifacts that will one day be studied. i am blessed and grateful to present myself in this 3D spacetime continuum as an academic, a student, a scholar.

scholars have so much more leverage in this world than those who haven’t put in the extra 4+ years after earning a diploma or GED. i try to challenge + eventually diminish my own adherence to credentialism; as well as check my privilege when it comes to education. even with my gratitude checked and contextualized, i can still be blessed to be someone — a black someone — becoming fluent in the language of the academy; to receive skills for jobs in a world that were never made for me.