Having a Ph.D. doesn’t make a person special, but it’s a gruelling years-long initiation many of us were never expected to survive and did so in spite of shitty, incurious white gatekeepers who kissed other white gatekeeper ass to get access that we kicked doors down to achieve.

My Ph.D. wasn’t about just me—it was about my family’s and mentors’ love and support. Every degree, promotion, accolade, etc., is theirs too. They’re proud; so am I. Social capital isn’t the same thing as worth, but we’ll take it for what it is and never mistake what it means.

We belong at all levels, at all the tables, with all the degrees and the honourifics. And we’ll keep earning them, and making space for more of our own. It isn’t the only work that matters, and the academy is brutal and corrosive, but so is every other structure and institution.

Degrees and titles aren’t who we are; we’re helped with perspective by our kin, our friends, and our communities. BIPOC folks questioning value of or complicities in pursuing a Ph.D.—that’s an important, complex, and nuanced discussion. But others had best tread carefully.

If patronizing bigots whinge that we “wrong” kind of people are sullying the elitist degrees, titles, and honours that were intended solely for their pale, male, and stale country club cliques, kindly address complaints to me, Dr. Justice, and my Ph.D. colleagues, at Screw U.