Illegally Black

Abstract

Being a black woman is hard. I often hear my black male friends say that it is harder to be a black male in American than it is to be a black female, but I think for them they still have that male factor. And for us we have that double jeopardy of being black and a woman. So that causes all kinds of interesting experiences. I love being black, I love the fact that we are so resilient and that we can go through hardships and struggles since that has been inherently presented to us, but we can make it on the other side. Our history has forced us to be strong and to endure stuff that I don't think a reasonable person would be able to endure otherwise. So I think that is what I love about being a black woman. [From introductory section]