“I didn’t know you hated me,” she texted. “Me neither,” I texted back. “What’s up?” A story I shared in a group we belonged to “cut her to the core.” I’d talked about the conundrum of enjoying gospel singers on YouTube and realizing that the audience included people from a state in the deep south. I had wondered how many white people in attendance would welcome a black woman into their homes. I texted her back, “My story was about the double consciousness of black life in America, nothing personal.” She thanked me for elaborating. I am weary of explaining.
Donna Williams is a self-published author who is working on a memoir about her upbringing in the Jim Crow South. Find Donna at lifepainlaughter.com and on Twitter and Instagram @donnanotdiva.