As a minority woman of color of Bengali descent in this world, a first-generation American, and as a first-generation low-income college student at an elite institution like Columbia University, I am tired of seeing my fellow POC peers being primarily valued, respected and even fetishized for their “superhuman” abilities of resilience, grit, strength, resistance, survival and thrival. I am tired of our individual and collective value being dependent upon our ability to survive when constantly and systematically being pushed to our limits, internal and external, all the damned fucking time, even once we “miraculously” make it to college, and especially to these elite institutions like Columbia University, the Ivy League and other elite comparables. We deserve much better than that as human beings.

  women achievements, women in world, Women News