To know her is to love her, but to get to know her is just as better. Kemoy Anderson is more than just a student-athlete at Shorter University. The track and field athlete is redefining what it means to be a dark skin woman while standing against society’s beauty standard.

The 20-year-old Newnan, Ga., native has overcome the hardships of bullying and lack of self-confidence in hopes of reaching a career to uplift those facing similar circumstances. Through the support of her mother and the guidance of God she believes that she can prevail through all of life’s hardships. Here, she talks about the misconception people have towards dark skin women, how she has had to overcome the pressures of being a dark skin woman and what she wants to say to young dark skin women.

How are you able to overcome the pressures and anxieties regarding being a dark skin woman in a typically white woman dominated environment?

I tell myself that I am my own person and that God created me the way I am for a reason. Being a dark skin woman is especially hard because it seems like now days everyone wants to be black until you actually have to be black. There are times where I think to myself well ‘I wish this was better about me or that I didn’t do that as much,’ but I know that pressure builds diamonds and someday I’m going to sprout into a more beautiful diamond than I already am. (LOL)

Who or what motivates you to embrace your beauty?

My mom is by far the one who motivates me! She taught me early to love myself, especially when others couldn’t see me for my beauty. Throughout all of my life it has mostly just been me and her and she taught me the importance of self-love and how to stand on my own two feet. This has really helped me in track especially when I got hurt because it taught me that I shouldn’t lean on my troubled thoughts but that I should look back on what my mom had raised me to believe.

Do you ever find yourself comparing your beauty to that of celebrities such the Kardashians?

Of course not! Haha nothing about them is real. They have a beautifully family, but none of that matters when you’re living a miserable life and you can tell they are miserable by how they look when they are all together. I am Kemoy and Kemoy alone. I don’t compare myself to no man and especially no other woman.

What are some things you wish you tell yourself in order to stay committed?

 I tell myself that better days are coming and that one day I will be helping so many babies with a career as a pediatric anesthesiologist. My overall goal in life has been to help people and to give back. Mixed with my love for science and giving back, it is a great reminder to keep going. I hope that by using my platform in the future, I can help everyone to some degree.

What are some beauty standards that you think society implements on women of color specifically dark skin women?

I think it’s the idea that we need to resemble our light skin counterparts. Our eyes should be lighter instead of darker, our hair should not be short or “rough” but instead it should long and curly. It’s a sad to say that a lot of the hate doesn’t even come from white people, but a lot of the times it comes from members of our own community. Every way you can think a woman of color should be they (society) thinks otherwise.

 Why do you think society has such a negative connotation of dark skin women?

The negative image of black women started long ago and has stuck ever since. Even though the year is 2017, people still try and label us all the same and that’s not right. No matter if someone is prettier than someone else or smarter than someone else, no one has the right to determine someone based on how they perceive them without knowing them.

What are some things you wish you could tell younger dark skin girls?

You are all queens!! There are no exclusions in my eyes. As someone who was bullied and still to this day goes through some troubling times, I think it’s high time we start encouraging one another rather than tearing each other down. When you feel yourself getting down, just remember that you are uniquely made.

Surely for a nine-time national champion and 12-time conference champion this would be just another race. All she would have to do is get down in the blocks and make sure that when the gun goes off she doesn’t get left behind. Sounds simple, right?

The mere thought of competing at the NCAA Track and Field Championship was enough to make her squeamish. This was also Shorter’s first full year in the NCAA Division II. So she was determined to make a mark for the program.

As Walker loaded the van to head to the Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala., her mind began to wander. She reclined her seat and plugged in her headphones to listen to her favorite pre-warmup song.

“The song ‘Trust Me’ by Richard Smallwood is a great reminder that I need to submit myself to the Lord. The lyrics remind me that I am not capable of doing anything on my own strength,” Walker said.

Over two hours passed before Walker and her coach reached the Crossplex. Before exiting the van, her coach reassured her that she was meant to be here.

Walker has known since her senior year of high school that Coach Scott Byrd was the kind of person she needed in her life.

“He’s like my second dad. I can’t even begin to explain how much he has shaped me not only into the runner, but also the person that I am today,” Walker said.

As she walked through the Crossplex double doors, her nerves fought to escape her body. Her stomach howled despite having eaten breakfast hours earlier.

Making her way through crowds of athletes and coaches, she eyed those who brushed past her. After checking in for her race, she looked at her watch.

10:30 a.m.

Only two hours until go time.

Walker searched the bleachers to find her coach. She already knows what he is going to say.

“You deserve this.”

After chatting with her coach,   she was greeted by her family and friends. The nerves swirling had now turned to adrenaline. She started to think that this race was bigger than her. It was for everyone in her life who had a hand in getting her where she was that day.

Greeting her supporters with hugs and smiles, she came face to face with her most important one of them all – her mom, Pamela Walker-Luke. Of the five years she has been at Shorter, Walker’s mother has been to almost every track meet. No matter the distance.

“I don’t care if I was in Alaska trying to pin a tail on a donkey, my mother would be right there to support me,” Walker said.

The time was 11 a.m., and Walker needed to get ready for her race. She made her way past unfamiliar faces and hummed Smallwood’s song from earlier to relieve her anxiety. She went through 45 minutes of warmup drills all the while channeling every ounce of worry from her mind.

“The nerves were eating away at me, but at that same time I was more confident than I had ever been. I knew I had placed all my trust in the Lord, so that my confidence was lying solely in him,” Walker said.

But just a day before, the same pre-race confidence was nowhere in sight. While participating in a practice session, Walker nearly collided with an opposing athlete who walked out in front of her. In an attempt to not run over the athlete, Walker tweaked her hamstring. According to her athletic trainer, Walker had sustained a grade 2 hamstring injury.

Her coach says despite his unwavering attempts to scratch her from the meet, Walker was adamant she could run.

“She was not going to let me take her out of the race and no matter how much I pleaded she had already made up her mind,” Byrd said.

She spoke one final prayer before stepping onto the track. “Trust Me” was replaying in her head. Her focus was on winning and nothing could deter her from it.

She found her way to the outside lane, set her blocks and hummed lines of Smallwood’s song.

“I will be with you …I’ll never leave you …I’ll fight your battle …If you will only trust Me.”

Walker clutched the handcrafted, coconut shell, cross necklace she got from a Belize pen pal in 2009 and moved it inside her shirt, just as she always did since the first time she wore it. It is a token of her and the girl’s friendship.

“I wear the necklace as a constant reminder to pray for the less fortunate people of Belize and as a reminder that all that I do is not for my own personal gain but for the glorification of the Lord,” Walker said.

Once the starting gun fired, Walker led the race. The bell rang as the officials signaled that the runners were entering their final lap. Walker increased her stride as she jetted off the last turn to cross the finish line.

53.29 seconds.

Not only had Walker secured the 2015 NCAA 400-meter national title and set a new school record, she also made Shorter University’s history as the first NCAA national champion in its first full year as a Division II member. Unlike champions who know their win immediately, Walker didn’t even realize she had won until an hour later.

“I was in shock. It didn’t hit me until I was in the training room and the athletic trainer reminded me that I had won,” Walker said.

But Walker has not always seen such sweet victories. She has had to endure countless struggles of depression and injury that have set her back from the goals she had envisioned for herself. Her sophomore and junior seasons were plagued with hamstring injuries and eventual depression; the challenges led to several downward spirals. Unknown to those around her, Walker’s faith and patience were being tested.

Even Walker’s childhood friend Zandra Lake has seen only hints of Walker’s worst moments.

“There’s been many times where she’s called me upset and overwhelmed, but one time in particular left a very unsettling feeling over me,” Lake said.

Lake remembered walking back into the dorm room they shared as sophomore roommates to find Walker on the ground. Lake thought Walker was playing a game. It wasn’t until she heard Walker saying she couldn’t breathe that she realized her friend was in trouble.

“She kept giving me one worded responses and not really showing me any signs of getting better,” Lake said. “It was only after I talked her down and positioned her upright that she then began to recuperate.”

For much of her life, Walker was able to rely on the support of her friends and family to get her through tough times. It wasn’t until after she graduated and moved to Clermont, Fla., to pursue a professional track and field career that she realized she was on her own for the first time in her 24 years.

Her challenges and lack of a support system drove Walker back to Rome, Ga., in August 2016 where she decided to train with her Byrd again. According to Walker, the switch was necessary if she wanted to continue having passion for track and field.

“Florida was great including the coach and teammates, but the pressures of money and making sure that everyone had my best interest at heart was daunting,” Walker said.

Walker secured a job at the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, the same place she did her college internship. As her training progressed, so did her attitude on life. No longer did the uneasy feeling of being isolated haunt her; instead, she focused on preparing herself for the 2017 USA Indoor Championship and the 2017 World Championships.

But that same month, she began to feel a pinch in her hip. A local physician diagnosed her as having a torn labrum in her right hip.

“I said to myself, of course this would happen to me. I remembered letting out a hysterical laugh when the doctor told me my diagnosis,” Walker said.

Walker said it took long nights of frustrated talks with God before she remembered the lesson of patience she had learned earlier.

Walker’s teammates know that this is another setback that she will overcome.

“To see someone endure so much and still find a way to praise God is unbelievable; her testimony in the end will be so much greater than the pain she has had to bear,” teammate Jasmine Crump said.

Though Walker’s national championship aspirations have been put on hold, she admits the journey will be worth it in the end. She hopes that one day she can wear the USA logo across her chest.

Cecil Robinson
Guest Writer
cecil.robinson@hawks.shorter.edu

Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, marked the ending of the Obama era and the beginning of a new chapter for the nation. The world watched as the Obamas took their last steps in the place they called home for eight years.

Three young adults who were middle schoolers when the Obamas first entered the White House are forever changed by the Obamas. Here are a few things they taught us.

First, they showed us that you can come from nothing and still achieve greatness. Before he became president, Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Caucasian mother and a black Kenyan father. Like many others, Barack had to overcome many obstacles in life. Barack started his journey to presidency by attending and graduating from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he met the woman who would be the 44th first lady of the United States, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson.

She was born on the Southside of Chicago to two hard-working parents who believed that she could achieve anything.

With that assurance instilled in her, she went on to attend and graduate from Princeton University and from Harvard Law School.

Secondly, they taught us the importance of being aware of social and economic issues by taking on the matters in their community and the world. Their goal was to bring social, racial and economic issues to light. Until the end of his presidency, they worked tirelessly to make the nation a place where all could be accepted, valued and respected.

One of the areas Obama wanted to improve was the economy. According to cbsnews.com, Obama added 13.7 million new jobs over a 69-month streak of job growth to ensure a more proficient economy in 2015.

Because of their accomplishments during Barack’s presidency, two African-American male students and a Caucasian female student can come together to reflect on one of America’s most influential presidential couples. We are excited to see what the Obamas do next as they continue to impact lives and motivate the world.