"My last name isn't actually my own. It comes from a family slave owner who owned my ancestors. Since then my family has been taught not to offend white people. My dad grew up hearing his father tell him not to look white people in the eye because it's disrespectful. So I can't blame my parents for wanting to play it safe and not offend those they are connected to because for years that's what we've been taught."– Danielle Bowden

Danielle Bowden and Zaria Walker live in a world where speaking up for their race is frowned upon and gender inequality is accepted. Society for years has groomed women and people of color that they are less, and when given a slight advancement towards equality they need to be grateful. But for these women, progress is not progress when their rights are still less than everyone else's.

For them, being Black in a white society means their struggles are hardly recognized.

"Even our history is so whitewashed. It's like we learn that we were freed and that's about it. We learn we got voting rights. It's as if we are being told 'You have rights so it's all good now!' and it's not," said Bowden. "We aren't equal. And we're angry about that."

Both women serve as Talented Tenth Activist Coalition officers to raise awareness against racism. Currently, they are fighting for a multicultural center at MTSU to not only educate other people and open them up to the idea of learning about what minorities go through but to give students that are the minority a place where they can be themselves and openly discuss what they go through.

These women hope to leave a legacy at MTSU and let minorities know that they do matter and their voices are represented.

But race wasn't always something they knew to be a factor in inequality, neither of them grew up in a household that recognized race as an issue that would affect their children's future and in many cases, their everyday lives.

"I grew up in Seattle, attended a white church, went to a white school. My first best friend was white. I didn't even really consider race. But you just notice it as you get older. When I went to ETSU the community was very divided," Bowden explained. "People would say the N-word at people of color at the grocery store and KKK meetings were being held not far from us, in another town. I just don't understand why this is tolerated, but holding a sign that says I matter is frowned upon."

Why is this disgusting behavior tolerated, yet when a Black woman speaks out against oppression and declares that her life matters, we paint her as someone asking for special rights or someone who tries to stir up trouble?

Walker noticed the sting of racial separation at a fairly young age.

"I grew up around white folks. My parents never had the race talk with me, we were really just brought up not to think of ourselves as Black. I think my mom didn't want to force an opinion on me...so she let me figure it out on my own.

I was probably about six or seven when I first realized I was different. I had all white friends and I would invite them over. One day my friend told me she couldn't play with my sister. When I asked her why she told me it was because she was too dark, but it was okay to play with me because I was lighter. I didn't understand it. She was my sister. And if my friend could play with me then why couldn't she play with her, too? I knew then something wasn't right."

They realized racism at different times growing up, but today they see it almost daily, on top of the acceptance of gender inequality.

Walker broke how both racism and gender inequality is tolerated or misunderstood by categorizing the people who contribute to it.

"Some white men make me so angry because they don't understand and they just don't want to," said Bowden. "They are comfortable with their privileges and if they really took the time to understand what it's like to be a woman, and a Black woman, they would have to give up some of those privileges and no one wants to do that."

Privileges like earning more money for the same qualifications and performance, getting away with making sexual comments and jokes, making comments that belittle people of color, not intentionally, but because they are never taught to recognize that the comments are belittling. Like getting away with voicing their opinion without being seen as someone who is attempting to start an outrage.

"It makes me angry that white women are the most protected class. Yes, they are women and they aren't treated equally, but they still aren't seen as low as we are. They don't recognize that we don't have the same experiences."

Experiences like be sexualized and judged on how you wear your ethnicity.

"If you are too curvy you're too sexy, but if you're skinny you aren't sexy enough. If you are natural you look ghetto but if you wear a weave you are conforming. It's like there's no real place for us," said Walker.

Privileges like walking into a store and being able to open a water before they pay without being seen by the manager or experiences like getting pulled over. Both Bowden and Walker explained that when pulled over you have to be extra cautious of your body language. You have to make sure you tell the police officer exactly what you are doing and what you are reaching for.

"I've had white friends cuss at cops. If I did that I'd be thrown to the ground. Not because police are evil but because they fear Black people, even Black women," said Bowden.

"Then there are the Black men. And I love Black people, but many of the men view this as a race issue first but I can't separate my Blackness from my womanhood. They are still as men, allowed to get away with things that I can not," Walker said.

Things like speaking up. Things like news coverage.

"Why wasn't there any coverage of Deborah Danner in the news? There was no sense of urgency," said Bowden.

The issue of gender inequality is sadly tangled with racism for these young women in a knot that they cannot untangle on their own.

What if you took the time to ask one person whose skin is different than yours how they deal with racism. Why don't you ask them if it is an issue and what they feel the solution is? Why don't you ask a woman how she deals with gender inequality and if she thinks it's an issue? After all, unless you are in the shoes of those who are pleading against inequality, then how could you possibly know what it feels like and how real it actually is?

America, let's wake up and empower each other to the point of equal privilege and equal rights.