People of color are similarly hypervigilant when we navigate a white social world. We screen our jokes, our laughter, our emotions, and our baggage. We constantly manage complex social interactions so we are not fired, isolated, misunderstood, miscast, or murdered. We can come home, if we’re lucky enough to have a home, and turn off that setting. We often do, as I once did, look for versions of ourselves in literature and pop culture. But for black girls, home is both refuge and where your most intimate betrayals happen.
