THANK YOU for exemplifying that’s it’s more than okay, it’s FANTASTIC to be exacting and uncompromising when it comes to who has access to WHO YOU ARE. Nosy, racist, white randos don’t get to step on you. No matter how seemingly well-meaning. No matter how friendly (though NOT your friend).

I’ve been trying to be more like you in my own daily life and dealings with white people but especially white women. It’s cost me some folk I’d thought — or hoped were close friends, but who weren’t. Not when my Blackness became a part of any equation involving them supporting me over blatant white supremacist plays like purposeful erasure, etc.

Thank you for showing me, through your living and writing, how to be brave and true to myself and unapologetic. I’m trying to live that lesson every day, as best I can. Some days are tougher than others, but they’re all cleaner, truer, and BETTER than the ones I used to live. Thank you.