Ms. Cookie Paul, a black businesswoman in our small Texas town, mentored us black girls. Periodically she would pile us into her car and take us to some special event. One time, on the way home, she stopped at a restaurant. There was a wait to be seated. I had never walked through the front door of any “white” restaurant. I can still see me standing there in the restaurant lobby, quietly standing there with my arms folded. Miz Cookie Paul’s response to my posture was to step up behind me and whisper, “Unfold your arms; you belong here.”
Texas-born-and-bred mother and grandmother who lives in California, Donna Williams procrastinates at writing but loves every brow-furrowed hard-fought word. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-womans-place-girl-get-up/id1679177409 Instagram: @donnanotdiva