No woman, especially a black woman, should have to do anything to keep anything; but somehow, every woman had done just that at least once in their lifetime. That anything that made them feel cheap, that made them feel dirty, and worthless, always seemed to be just the thing that kept the lights from being turned off and kept the bellies of nappy-headed boys and girls full, while their mothers’ bellies growled through the night. Children rarely knew of the sacrifices their mothers made, but the effects of them were forever burned in the minds of the women who had to make them. Black women made
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