8.31.15

Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my former students in Baltimore. My babies are going into their first day of 9 th grade. I tried to take my mind off of missing and worrying about them so I picked up my Baldwin, in an effort to finish, “The Fire Next Time”. I did. And then I went online and found America’s 4 th favorite Black woman (only behind Oprah, BeyoncĂ©, and 1 st Lady Obama) Nicki Minaj, showing the entire world via the MTV Video Music Awards, how we women of traumatic childhoods who internalize other people’s projects, handle our problems with other women. We don’t use democratic poise and grace. We don’t call one another over to our homes for tea, brunch, or coffee. We don’t write a letter and try our best to talk things out. No, none of that. We bully. We send verbal threats… virtual ones too. We call our opponents out of their names. And we show no desire for actually resolving our issues without calling for a fight. We need