Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

by Crystal Smith Paul

Rebecca, trying to help, had suggested, Just pretend like you’re White. No one will notice. Stunned, Elise had worked to deconstruct Rebecca’s solution. How does someone pretend to be White? What is being White as opposed to being Black?

She stared out, wondering if it looked different from the murky Atlantic, which her mother said had a graveyard of African bones at its bottom.

Kitty didn’t understand. Babies weren’t for people, they happened to people.

The benefit of the doubt was one of the many privileges of Whiteness.

“I don’t know how to forgive you.” “You have to. I’m the only one who really knows you.”