Some stories hit you right between the eyes. Not because they are foreign, but because they expose a truth you have been circling around your whole life. That is precisely what happened when I read the story of Victoria Santa Cruz. Instantly, I thought about a conversation my sister and I had recently.

She shared with me, in a way she never had before, how she was treated differently because of her dark complexion — not by strangers on the street, not by classmates whose ignorance could be dismissed — but inside her own family, inside the house, inside the places where love is supposed to be the safest. She told me that I never noticed because I never had to. Well, she was right. Colorism, in-house bias, and internalized shame often live quiet lives in families that love each other…but do not always know how to love each other well.

Victoria was five years old when little white girls told her she could not play with them because she was Black. Fifty years later, she stood on a stage and shouted her Blackness to the world.

As I reflected, I thought of Victoria Santa Cruz — standing in front of a camera in 1978, revisiting the moment when her own childhood joy was interrupted by the word “Negra” hurled at her like a weapon. For years, she carried the shame that did not belong to her. She internalized a lie that never came from God. But one day, she decided to give that shame back. She did it loudly, rhythmically, with fire and with identity rooted not in who rejected her, but in who created her.

That shift — from “They called me Black” to “Yes, I am Black… and I am proud” — is a spiritual reclamation. It is what happens when a person refuses to let other people’s issues become their identity.

And that, my friend, is what I want to say to you today:

No one should have to suffer because of someone else’s broken perception.
You are not responsible for the wounds that others project onto you.

People will judge you from the limitations of their own unhealed hearts. They will hand you labels they never had the right to print. They will try to shrink you because your fullness exposes their lack. But hear me clearly: what they think about you is a mirror of them — not a measurement of you.

You were designed intentionally. Sculpted by purpose. Loved into existence by a God who does not make mistakes, revisions, or duplicates.

The world will try to hand you shame. Heaven handed you identity.

The world will try to define you. God already named you.

The world will tell you you are “too much,” “not enough,” or “different.”
God says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He stamped that truth before anyone else had an opinion.

This is the season to stop letting culture, family, society, or old wounds dictate your value. This is the moment to stop living under ceilings you did not build and expectations you never agreed to. You were created to walk in divine purpose — not in someone else’s projections.

Choose today — right now — to no longer be captive to the world’s limitations. Choose to silence the lies with your success. Choose to shut down the whispers with your perseverance. Choose to drown out shame with the loud, unapologetic truth of who God says you are.

Because when you finally recognize your identity?
When you step into the fullness of it?
You do not whisper it.
You shout it like Victoria.
You claim it like victory.
You walk in it like destiny.

Guess what? The world adjusts.

Coach E