I will never forget
the time I finished doing a public
2 and a half hour reading
of my second book
“Lucid”
sweating shaky nervous
It is sheerly and purely
an inner dialogue
of my own inner
blackness and whiteness
arguing about what state
I am in
It is nothing to do with how
the audience constructs
or interprets the politics of race
A man taught to be caucasian
from a young age says,
“what about all the good things white people have done?”
A black woman in the front row
immediately turns to him
“This is not about that!
I am from Alabama
60 years old.
I have family members
I watched get lynched
family members that burned
in agony in churches
I cried tears on their bodies!
I felt the immense heat
from crosses burning on
my neighbors yards
we had to have patrols go out
armed
to protect our people.
I did not come here to hear
about whiteness
You can go anywhere for that
not here
this is what I need to hear
you want to hear about whiteness
you are in the wrong place"
She calmly looked at me and smiled
"Thank you so much for doing this here."