Thread by @khadastrophic

I'm a dark-skinned natural hair "inner-city" Black girl with a single mom from the projects raised by folks who believed in me and loved on me.

And today I was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

There are so many folks to thank- mostly folks who made this possible - introduced me to an editor, called a friend at a journal, invited me to be on a panel, told me that my writing was great.

There were so many voices that said I couldn't, but theirs were stronger.

A big thanks goes to my advisor @johnljacksonjr who continues to teach me the importance of grace and generosity in this career. I owe you an untold debt :-) I hope to pay it forward.

I'm told I'm the first Black person to ever get promoted with tenure at my school.

I have lots of supportive colleagues to thank, and whom I appreciate very much. But I also stand on the shoulders of many folks who came before me.

Thank you. I hope to make y'all proud.

I want to add a quote from Neil DeGrasse Tyson that often comes to mind:

"I wanted to become something that was outside of the paradigms of expectation of the people in power. So, fortunately, my depth of interest was so deep, and so fuel-enriched, that every one of these

curveballs that I was thrown and fences that were built in front of me and hills that I had to climb, I’d just reach for more fuel and I kept going. Now here I am, one, I think, of the most visible scientists in the land and I want to look behind me and say,

“Where are the others who might have been this?” And they’re not there. And I wonder, what is the blood on the tracks that I happened to survive that others did not simply because the forces of society had prevented at every turn? At every turn!

[...] So, my life experience tells me that when you don’t find blacks in the sciences and you don’t find women in the sciences, I know that these forces are real and I had to survive them in order to get where I am today."

Here's to a future of more than surviving and more for all of us.