Why you deserve a seat at the table
Transcriber: Veda Narapureddy
Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
This morning, I am going to talk to you
all about something that everyone
experiences. It’s called
impostor syndrome.
Impostor syndrome occurs when
you’re on top of the world.
It happens at the moment where
you’re peaking and success,
then you’re just getting out
of that drought moment
and then there’s that noise in
the back of your mind that says
you’re not good enough.
It says, are you worth it? Do you
belong to take up space here?
Statistically speaking, 70 percent of
Americans experience imposter syndrome,
according to Forbes.
For me, impostor syndrome occurred
When I was 17 years old.
It was July 5th, 2016 and Alton
Sterling was murdered.
I had no activism experience. I had no
networks, I had no money, but I knew.
That we had to honor his life.
That moment would turn into the largest
peaceful protest in Louisiana history.
Thousands of people came to Louisiana to
honor his life. It would happen again.
At 18. I was called by the women’s
march on Washington,
receiving calls from the
Obama administration.
I was met with my peers who were
13 and 14, and I certainly was wondering,
was I too old to be activist now?
We sat on the cover of Teen Vogue
and I wondered why did
a little black girl from Baton Rouge
deserve to be on this cover?
Then again, at 19. I applied for
the NAACP, Montague Cobb Award.
This award was typically reserved for
people like doctors and lawyers
and politicians.
I was just the girl from Baton Rouge.
I went on to win the award, and
I could only wonder why.
At 20, I was called again
to develop policy.
Things that would shift my
community for the better.
An impostor syndrome snuck up on
me like a thief in the night.
I thought back to the moments
of my mother.
Working two jobs in a state that
ranks 48th in opportunity
and 40 second in fiscal stability.
I thought about how Louisiana ranks
number one in childhood poverty.
But number forty eight in education.
I remember having to bust out of my
community to be afforded an education,
to become competitive. I began
to see advertising.
That said, I should look a certain way and
I should speak a certain way
that was supposed to groom me to
be ready for corporate America.
It was things like that, those
micro aggressions,
people are telling me that you
were pretty for a black girl.
Are you talk proper? That
was astonishing to me.
Those were the micro aggressions that feed
into imposter syndrome that black
girls here every day.
I went on.
So come to the conclusion that
my successes weren’t the phenomenon.
The phenomenon was the regularity of how
these experiences were not unique.
Every day, I noticed more and
more of my peers dying.
More of my peers being let down
by a community that is supposed
to serve them.
I realized that I didn’t
want to be a statistic.
So every day I thought, how do
I combat imposter syndrome,
how do I write my own story,
how do I set the tone for little
black girls behind me?
I thought of all the moments that led to
where I am today to be able to stand
on this stage, a little black
girl from Baton Rouge.
To be able to defiantly, continuously show
up in spaces that should never be
allotted. Because society said
that I shouldn’t be here.
But I’m grateful. Because the awareness of
all of this is what made me dangerous.
Every opportunity that we have to equip
ourselves to change our communities comes
from the awareness we have of self.
I was no longer scared of a niche being
overwhelmed with other people because
I was going to be the best at it.
I was no longer worried about what
society would expect of me
because they have my label.
I thought of the two to five magazine
cover that read Maya Richardson wants
a seat at the table. And I thought to
myself. Do I deserve a seat at the table?
I also thought they didn’t capture
how cute my shoes were.
But all of that to say. That we
all deserve to take up space.
We all deserve to step into who we are
meant to be, not who we told we are.
So I will say no to impostor syndrome.
And I would say yes to the woman my mother
raised me to be, thank you guys.