By Caroline Turner
The 12th Annual Women of Color Leadership Conference at UMKC last Friday sold out. It featured keynote speaker Angela Rye and focused on the theme, “United and Strong: Rising through the struggle”.
“The struggle” is a broad word that can be defined at large as the struggle that we all face day to day, our “daily struggles”. For some, the daily struggle can come from situations at work, school, relationships, clumsy hands, forgetful minds, or malfunctioning technology. But for some, the daily struggle is one that is experienced with people on the subway, institutions, personal narratives, glass ceilings and ol’boy club doors, stemming from a deep rooted history.
I am currently reading, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a marvelous book wherein Coates narrates his history to his son, and delves in the mysteries of race. In the book he explains that his son, Samori, was named after Samori Ture, an Emperor of the Wassoulou Empire who resisted the French until his capture. Coates says, “The Struggle is in your name, Samori.” Keeping in mind the experiences and truths of a young black person in the USA that Coates opens up and passes to his son (and to the reader), I can’t help but connect it to this year’s Women of Color Leadership Conference theme.
The struggle that only a woman, a person of color, a woman in leadership, and the combination a woman of color in leadership all face, are unique and real. A diamond in the rough, the flower that breaks through the cold concrete, is what the keynote speaker Angela Rye represents as she rises above and then challenges the struggle as a young black political strategist, activist, and CEO by spreading seeds to others. Understanding what the concrete surrounding us is made of is part of our mission. For women, the cement can begin from being told what we can or cannot do as children, identifying and reacting to injustice as adults, and what lies between and beyond. We are all striving to be our best flower blossoming as big and beautiful as possible, having our diamond light shine bright in the sparkling eyes of all others. This year’s Conference theme reminds us there is strength in numbers and unity, and the help of others is essential and necessary for us to rise through the struggle. As Coates emphasizes in his book, we do not rise alone. There are many along our journey that help us to rise.
This week, if you have a moment to reflect, do not lose sight of your focus. Do not forget what your struggle is for. Remember that, “United and strong, we are rising through the struggle.”