When Black History Month started this year, I had the idea to alternate between current up-and-comers and legends who had passed away. My plan was to give those who read an idea of the greatness African Americans have achieved, despite the odds being stacked against us. 

I started with Cicely Tyson, a pioneer who helped reinvent the standard an African American can hold themselves too. Following Ms.Tyson, I focused on Amanda Gorman, a young woman using her gift of writing to blaze a new path to greatness. Last week, I wrote about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of people whose story embodies what it is like to be of color and an American. But for this last week, I had trouble coming up with the best way to end this series.

What is the best way to summarize all the hardships that we as a people have endured? Do I talk about the Tulsa Riots and their impact on the Great Depression? Do I talk about the Abolitionist Movement and that its success set up the current systemic obstacles people of color face today? Do I pick another celebrity, whose work momentarily changed the perception of black men and women during a news cycle? Maybe I talk about my own experiences in this country during my short 24 years of life, the times I was told I had to work ten times harder just because of the color of my skin? Or getting kicked out of establishments because the owners assumed I couldn’t afford what was being sold? Or the inappropriate calls my mom received because I went to prom with a white classmate? Or that these moments in my life weren’t just happening to me? Maybe I should talk about that only two days ago people around the world mourned the one-year anniversary of a black young man who was killed while jogging in his neighborhood?

It was after this reflection that I realized there is no one article, day, or month that could sum up what it is like to walk a day in my shoes, the amount of pressure faced every day because I might be the only African American male you ever meet or that my first impression could define my entire demographic. How do you summarize all the triumphs and heartaches? All the broken families and shattered dreams? 

How? 

The answer is you can’t.

All we can do is try to use today to create a better tomorrow by treating all those around you with respect and dignity, honoring the rights we have as Americans, paving a better future for the next generation and learning from the past and using it to change the future. 

Miles Rice, Exercise Physiologist Health Educator