Queenie

by Candice Carty-Williams

“It’s constant, with you. It’s too much,” Tom said, his voice cracking. “You’re too much, Queenie.”

If you’re a Black woman, I can guarantee that you’ve either been told that you’re too much, or you’ve been made to feel that you’re too much. For me, it was constant microaggressions that made me feel as though I was too much. I was either called ‘loud’ or ‘very confident’ or ‘a character’, especially at work, even though I’m quite a shy person. It felt important for Queenie to have to understand, from someone that she loves, that the perception of her is bound to stereotype, and that Tom has never really seen the person that she is.