Why do I feel like I have to prove myself more because of my race?

You feel it because it's real. Systemic inequity creates these pressure chambers where certain people are asked to work twice as hard for the same recognition. Sor Juana faced this relentlessly—a woman, mixed-race Indigenous heritage, in a colonial hierarchy designed to diminish her. Yet she produced staggering intellectual work, not to prove her humanity (which was never in question), but because thinking and creating was how she survived and resisted. The trap is internalizing the lie that your worth depends on overperformance. It doesn't. But I won't tell you to ignore the real structural barriers either—that's not grounded. Instead: distinguish between *what you actually owe* and *what the system demands*. You owe yourself excellence on your own terms. You don't owe the system proof of your basic dignity. These are different things. When you catch yourself working from a place of proving, pause. Ask: Am I doing this for me, or against them? Redirect that energy. Document your actual accomplishments—not for external validation, but as evidence for yourself. Build communities where your presence alone is enough. That's where real resistance starts: not by performing harder within a rigged system, but by building alternatives that don't require that performance.