With skin that resembles coffee, the nighttime sky and tells the story of generations of women in my family, I am a Black woman. The smell of Red Door by Elizabeth Arden bounces off my skin, as it once did my mom when she was my age and I feel grounded in my Blackness and womanhood. Outside of school, I have studied Black history in all its tragedies and triumphs and spoken the language of many of my ancestors, but even before I am Black and a woman, I am Hope.