Guest Author - Khara Aisha

The dedication to this book reads, in part, "and for the Clair Huxtables everywhere." Now, I know that I don't even have to explain to you who she is! (If you don't know, your assignment is to watch at least two The Cosby Show reruns every night this week!) But I will explain what that dedication meant to me.

In summary, I was surprised and delighted. And inspired to think of her in a way that I never had. On one hand, I had never really considered what Clair Huxtable meant to black America, and to America in general. Does either group realize that she wasn't a novelty or an original, but a representation of a group of women that really do exist and thrive in America? The answer is likely NO. And as a black female lawyer in corporate America, I see the reality of this every day. There are nearly 1000 lawyers in my law firm, nationally, but many people still see me as a rarity or an anomaly. They ask whether I am a secretary or a paralegal. I try not to be surprised or annoyed. And despite the surprise (shock or disdain) by my teachers, peers, and even family members at my intelligence and ambition, I have never been deterred. I always knew what I wanted.

I have never encountered a book that is more about ME as a black woman than HAVING IT ALL? by Veronica Chambers. I didn't read the book when it was published in 2003, and I really regret that now. This book is interesting and captivating from cover to cover. Granted, it isn't a book or guide to achieving success as a black women. It isn't a how-to book, specifically. Rather, the books focuses on the fact that many black women are now and historically have been very successful in America, although we are rarely portrayed that way in American art, media, or history books. And despite the problems and challenges that we face along the way -- from unsupportive families, to office politics, to general racism -- black women continue to make sigificant, even if invisible, achievements, and to define "success" in our own terms.

Some of these women are readily identifiable, like Clair Huxtable. For example, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleeza Rice, and Maya Angelou. But most of the names in this book represent women who have never been mentioned on BET or very, very are rarely mentioned in other media, although their accomplishments are no less impressive. These are names such as Donna Auguste, Sheila Bridges, Thelma Golden, Anna Perez, Ruth Simmons, Yvonne Durant, Janet Hill, Margaret Porter Troupe, Jacqueline Bazan, and even the real life women who portrayed Aunt Jemima. These are the names we should know, Chambers tells us, because they remind us and the world that Clair Huxtable wasn't the first, she wasn't a work of fiction, and her spirit is still alive and well.

I am SO impressed by this book, and I was moved and inspired by the accounts of the black women that Chambers speaks of in this book. HAVING IT ALL? should be required reading for successful black women everywhere. It is so, so good to really see that we aren't alone and that we aren't the firsts. We are everywhere.