Chapter 7: A Gifted Black Femme Scientist Bends Toward Justice

When and Where I Enter: Much of my identity will unfold for the reader in this chapter, but what might not be clear is that as the child of activists, I had access to unusual social capital for a kid who grew up on a working-class income. My parents both went to college (one in the US, the other in the UK) but didn’t spend a lot of time in class and actively decided not to capitalize on those degrees, instead committing to “The Movement.” After their divorce when I was five, my mother was my primary caregiver for nine months of the year, making her income a primary determinant of my lifestyle until I graduated from high school at 16. She was often stressed about money and could not afford to buy me books, but when I started getting straight A’s, she started taking me shopping for books whenever I brought a report card home. Now, as a beginning Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of New Hampshire, it is difficult for me to go into a bookstore without buying a book because the novelty of being able to afford it has not worn off. Even with the challenges I faced, thanks to my mother’s activist network, I had early access to technology like the internet and traveled nearly annually to the UK from a young age. I always understood myself to be college bound. I never thought the path to where I am would be as hard as it has been. I am aware that for others it is even harder, or impossible.