Personal Reflections on HIDDEN FIGURES

With G-d's Name, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer

"Behind every great man is a great woman" is not just a cliche.'  These are the facts of life, both literally and figuratively.  As I reflect on HIDDEN FIGURES, which I viewed in the theater a couple of nights ago with my friend and our daughters, I am once again reminded that we, African-American women, are deeply rooted. I made so many real-life, personal connections to the re-telling of a story that is rooted in historical facts and figures.  Like the main character, Katherine Johnson, I too showed an early affinity for mathematics and excelled in this area and I thank Allah that our daughter Sajdah is doing the same.  

Centered, me, Aqueelah Rasheed, with my daughter Sajdah Shaheedah Rasheed.
Far left, my friend April Abdul-BaaQee and far right, her daughter, my namesake Aaqila Abdul-BaaQee.

There were 3 African-American, females who greatly influenced my desire to major in Mathematics: my mother, my first teacher, who taught me to read and write BEFORE I went to school.  She was my first exposure to schooling and education and she planted within me the desire to teach. My instructors for pre-Algebra, Algebra I & Alegbra II were 2 African-American females - Ms. Ousley, 7th grade and Ms. Newby, 8th & 9th grade. These ladies were my models of what I could do, what I could be and what I would eventually become. A lover of mathematics! While in junior high school, I marveled over these AMAZING African-American women, teachers, scholars and their brilliance, their intellect and their aptitude and love for everything mathematics! I went on to major in Mathematics at Duke University and at one point, prior to starting my family, I briefly taught 7th grade math.  

After graduating college, I worked as a Consultant and Delivery Support Specialist for IBM, yet another personal connection to HIDDEN FIGURES. Dorothy Vaughn, who is also depicted in the movie, was a mathematician and became independently proficient at computer coding and learned to successfully operate one the IBM mainframes at NASA. She then shared this knowledge with the other African-American females in her division. She would eventually  become the 1st African-American manager of the Division at NASA that housed the  IBM mainframes - a remarkable feat given the racial climate of those times. 

After graduating I also married an Electrical Engineer. Needless to say, we both possess mathematical minds and as mentioned earlier, the fruit does not fall too far from the tree.  Our eldest child, our one and only daughter, Sajdah, currently in 8th grade, is literally "A"cing High School Math I, all the Praise and Thanks are due to G-d.  So, she is deeply rooted and her 2 younger brothers are rooted alongside her as well. This is her/their ancestry.  This is her/their legacy.  This is where SHE comes from and what SHE is made of.  As clearly shown in HIDDEN FIGURES and in my real-life experience, it is a myth that African-American females struggle with mathematics.  Two of the most influential women in my "middle years" of adolescence were African-American, female, mathematicians who, along with my mother, molded and shaped my mind and evolved my G-d given aspirations.  

NASA's "HIDDEN FIGURES"
Far left - Dorothy Vaughn (Mathematician & NASA's 1st African-American Supervisor)
Center - Mary Jackson (Mathematician & NASA's 1st African-American, Female, Aerospace Engineer for NASA)
Far right - Katherine Johnson (1st African-American Physicist & Mathematician for NASA to compute the flight trajectories for several NASA missions including those of John Glen, Alan Shepard, and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon)

Today and everyday, I give honor and pay homage to these women and countless others like Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn, the true mathematical minds "BEHIND the missions" at NASA as shown in HIDDEN FIGURES. I stand on the shoulders of giants including the young, African-American, author Margot Lee Shetterly who begin researching and writing her debut book, HIDDEN FIGURES, in 2010. I am now an author and I am reminded again that this natural progression in my life is a "Literary Equation!" All knowledge is connected and this reminder is what I value most about this movie and my experience as a math major - the reminder that G-d is "the Cherisher and Sustainer of all the Systems of Knowledge" - not man. He bestows wisdom upon whom He chooses regardless of race, religion, gender, socio-economic status or stereotypes. We all have equal potential to achieve and express "astronomical" intellectual and academic success. 

Katherine Johnson, African-American Physicist and Mathematician for NASA

As a mathematician, I understand the pure and purposeful passion for mathematics even in the face of racism as depicted in HIDDEN FIGURES.  Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn were undaunted in their intellectual, collective and professional pursuits while at NASA amongst a sea of "others" who did not value their worth or deem them equal simply due to the color of their skin. The mathematical computations of Katherine Johnson put US, literally the U.S., into space and eventually on the moon as well.  Ironically my favorite course as an undergrad was "mathematical biology."  Let's just say that I LOVED it because it all made good, practical, USEFUL sense! Math was no longer just exciting, yet abstract strings of formulas, computations and equations, but rather mathematics was a tool that could be used to scientifically extract potential cures for cancer and other diseases.   

NASA's AMAZING Mathematicians & Engineers
Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson & Dorothy Vaughn

Equally important we see that Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn held firmly to the belief and exemplified in their actions that not one of us rises or excels unless we ALL rise and excel. They truly wanted for their sister what they wanted for themselves and they always supported, encouraged, and uplifted one another - TRUE sisterhood and womanhood. They understood the meaning behind G-d's words "To each is a goal to which G-d turns him; then strive together (as in a relay race helping each other) towards all that is good. Wherever you are, G-d will bring you together. For G-d has power over all things." (Holy Qur'an 2:148).  

Our dear, beloved leader and teacher Imam W. Deen Mohammed gave us his tafsir or commentary that helps us to see that this striving as in a race is COLLECTIVE, not competitive.  A relay race implies that each individual person plays a very crucial, unique and significant role in attaining the victory, in getting to the finish line of collective community achievement, not separately, but together.  If we are to get there, to where G-d's desires for us to be as a community of people, then we must go back to our roots and do it collectively by pooling our resources, sharing our knowledge, wisdom, insights and expertise with one another to REBUILD the model community that existed right here in America within the womb of the Nation of Islam - schools, banks, businesses, farms, restaurants, etc, etc. It is time for our past, present and future "HIDDEN FIGURES" to arise within our hearts, minds and souls to be seen. "Humankind can have nothing but what he strives for. The fruit of his striving will soon come into full sight. Then he will be rewarded with full compensation." (Holy Qur'an 53: 39-41). 

Katherine Johnson receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom
from President Barack Obama at Age 97

I think it is beautiful and befitting how Allah made manifest the significant, world-changing, achievements of the "Sistas" in HIDDEN FIGURES at just the right time! Nothing of good can ever remain buried under the guise of obscurity. The truth will ALWAYS arise from the depths of darkness in the LIGHT! AMEEN - G'd is with those who Believe, have Faith and put their Trust in Him!