Jenny K. Wright loves this
2X Bestselling Author & Writing Coach | Keynote Speaker | Neurodivergent | Bipolar Disorder | Epileptic | 🩷💜💙 | #BLM ✊🏽 | Vegan 🌱 | 🇵🇸 🍉 | Seen in NYTimes, Forbes & TIME | SXSW 2024 Panelist | ΔΣΘ🔺
Based on the stats, I shouldn't have even graduated high school, let alone attended University of Florida on a full scholarship, gone on to get an MBA and become a college professor. That shouldn't have been in my future at all. 🤷🏽♀️ 💡 My high school is 90% Black. 81% of the students are considered economically disadvantaged and qualify for free or reduced lunch. I was in that 81%! 💡 The school ranked in the bottom 50% of Math and Reading scores, with only 34% of students reaching proficiency in either subject. 💡 I barely managed to score the 1000 on the SAT I needed for college admission. But my teachers instilled the confidence in me that I could do ANYTHING. And I believed them! My junior year of high school I took an African American studies class. And I read two books that changed my life: The Isis Papers by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing and The African Origin of Civilization by Cheikh Anta Diop. It was then that I learned the indisputable fact that Africa is the CRADLE of Civilization. And grasping that gem 💎 of knowledge from teachers, who looked like me, made me even hungrier for knowledge about myself. My teachers brought their own collections of books 📚 into the classroom to teach us the philosophies of Carter G. Woodson and John Henrik Clarke. Reading their words was transformative for me. ✊🏼 Regardless of the outdated, torn textbooks in our classrooms or the drug dealers on the corner outside the school, they told us we were descendants of Kings and Queens. 👑 I believed that too!! They explained that the European colonizers, who arrived on the continent, encountered advanced civilizations. They DID NOT arrive to a continent full of "savages" or "slaves." They encountered KINGDOMS 🕌 with mining, planned cities, sewerage systems, architectural masterpieces, music, arithmetic, and oral literature. The image of Africa as an advanced civilization prior to the arrival of Europeans ran totally counter to the image I had been taught up until that time. But learning it created a sense of pride. Learning about Africa 🌍 changed my outlook about myself, my ancestry and my potential. It's the reason I'm so committed to studying and teaching, not only the true history of the continent but also about the connections between all of us in the African diaspora. Because I learned then, just as I know now, that all of us are intertwined. 🤲🏼 Prior to that time I had always felt like I didn't belong. But at the age of 15, I grasped the fact that I had a home. 🇬🇧 I was born and raised in London. 🇯🇲 My parents were Jamaican. 🌴 I was living in South Florida. 🌍 But I finally knew where I was really from. Video Credit: @_Iremide_ on Instagram #africandiaspora #blackexcellence #blackpride #blackpower #blackculture #blackhistorycultureacademy
Cool video. And congratulations on your accomplishments! But the South African flag is facing the wrong way other end is supposed to be on the pole.
What an amazing story, life is a journey and as we go through life📚 we learn more and more about ourselves and discover💡 our strengths and weaknesses. Recall the impact our teachers, parents, and community had on us. You made it it sister!! Congratulations on all of your accomplishments!! I know you are paying it forward. You are truly blessed and a blessing. Being a student at the University of Florida truly had an impact on my life. It’s Great to be a Florida Gator!! 🐊
Elizabeth Leiba your posts are always so uplifting.
Tears, happy ones. There's so much truth and pride to be discovered in the Black ancestry. So proud of us and always rooting for us to learn our history and grow out of the mental poverty that some of us are born into. Wha gwaan yardie.... 🙌🏿 ✊🏿🇯🇲
First sis is giving everything!! She created, understood, and aced the assignment!! Secondly— learning who we really are is so important beyond what white america puts in front of us. It allows us to really flex our royalty and greatness is difference ways. ❤️ thank you for the work you do educating!
Elizabeth Leiba - Keep spreading the LOVE! Your accomplishments are an inspiration and your example lifts the vision young black girls have of themselves. You make me proud to be a 🐊.
Many don’t realize that Africa is a continent not a country that is large enough to fit the United States in its northern half with plenty of room to spare.
Your points are well taken Elizabeth. I am a firm believer in “you are not where you come from!” Nor do I believe a person is “a product of their environment.” Case and point, there are numerous of us Black, Latino, Asian and other races too but focusing on Black people, who faced the same or similar educational challenges as you did and we chose to excel inspite statistical data which was intended to perpetuate us as failures. I’m thankful to God for them and myself for not allowing anything negative said or done to us to prevent us from all we have accomplished and achieved. We are successful for so many reasons despite the statistics. I served 20 years in the Marine Corps. While on active duty mostly and still today, I have been told by individuals that “I don’t look like a Marine.” Early on in my career I would take offense and respond(with sass and attitude), “Well, I am.” Now, when I hear it I just smile because I served honorably. One tour in Iraq, received numerous awards, completed my Bachelors degree 2 months after retirement and got an MBA. I have nothing to prove to anyone. We did the hard work and made sacrifices. All thanks and to God and our ancestors.
2X Bestselling Author & Writing Coach | Keynote Speaker | Neurodivergent | Bipolar Disorder | Epileptic | 🩷💜💙 | #BLM ✊🏽 | Vegan 🌱 | 🇵🇸 🍉 | Seen in NYTimes, Forbes & TIME | SXSW 2024 Panelist | ΔΣΘ🔺
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