Let me throw out a couple numbers: 3.4% and 1%.

No, those aren't the odds of winning the lottery. According to datausa.io, that's the percentage of doctor of physical therapy degrees earned by African Americans (3.4%), and African American males specifically, (1%) in 2016.

As a black male working toward a DPT degree, I didn't need those stats to know that I'm in the minority. In my physical therapy school at the University of Miami, I am one of only four black students, and the only black male.

That's a big difference from my undergrad experience at Stillman College, a historically black college in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where more than 90% of my classmates were black.

There, I blended in. Now, I stick out—an apple among oranges.