Greg S > Recent Status Updates

How does a person remember these details? - “The other, a petite woman with a tiny, perfectly round bump and wearing black-and-purple Jordans, skinny jeans, and a hoodie, sat nearby chatting loudly on her phone.”

She finally says something about the Haitian Revolution and…oh, wow she’s just going to skip all the interesting parts. The destruction of land and infrastructure during the War with France. The war between the North and the South in 1811. Nothing about Jean-Pierre Boyer.

I’ve never heard of this stereotype, but maybe I’m lucky! - “Despite stereotypes that branded Haitians as voodoo-inspired witch doctors…”

More information, please. - “It lurks behind every promise of love from a Black man.”

Quick Wikipedia search has me curious about the Indian population in Trinidad. And I wonder if the author doesn’t know or it’s not exposed to, just wondering why it hasn’t been mentioned. I also read about a coup attempt concerning land claims. So now I’m wondering if there’s been a history of land disputes in Trinidad.

I’ve been to Vietnam on vacation too, but I went to temples instead of vietnam war tunnels. Weird

The author realizes Trinidad also has poverty, right?

I’m curious about this. How does the debt in America impact her life in Trinidad? - “Even if I wanted to return to Trinidad, working off my debts in the U.S. gave me the chance to do so more freely.”

This is the first we’re hearing about this. Why isn’t this a scene? — “…my Black peers ostracized me for my enjoyment of complete, complex sentences.”

She tells us but she doesn’t give us examples. Is this something she experienced, or a friend, or she overheard, read on the news, or what? - “…no lurking eyes set upon us from a distance, threatening to spoil our happiness by calling the cops.”

“Do Black people have tails?” he remembered a peer asking when they were both children.”

“Growing up, he felt isolated by his skin color, trapped in a world of whiteness that he could never fit into.”

One of the labels she has for herself is comedian?

It’s tough, she’s trying to talk about racism, misogyny, and poverty all in one book with a few examples, and a few sprinkles of history.

I wish she wouldn’t just skimm through the Haitian Revolution, Maya Angelou, and Frederick Douglass, all in one sentence.

I wish the author had more context for these blanket statements. — “Surviving a white-dominated environment was like traversing a desert with no water.”

I wish she would say why she now feels ostricized in a black neighborhood.

Oh, no, girl.

This book is more like death by a thousand cuts or chinese water torture.

I’m hoping the author wakes up soon and realizes her week in Trinidad during Carnival is not the day to day reality.

Sorry, is the author saying there is no misogyny in Trinidad?

I have family member who are nationalistic like this. It’s some utopia that is temporarily off track — “…could not restrain the indefatigable African spirit.”

It’s interesting. The author has such a strong reaction to certain things and how interesting different people focus on certain things. She says the steel drums are an example of African perseverance but I see it as desperate survival. But maybe it’s both and we’re talking about two different parts of a whole.

I’m so curious about this Trinidad nightclub. She says she feels secure and comfortable but I can’t tell why. She’s says nobody was judging or watching her but I think that’s some wishful thinking. People from Trinidad are human too. Didn’t that old lady just sneer and contemptuously call her “American”?

Is it weird she only know how to dance to hip hop? What are school dances for?

“Was I supposed to be envious at the thought of losing my entire cultural identity just to fit into the confines of American whiteness? My pursuit of white adjacency…”

For the first time, I’m wondering if I changed my name to better assimilate. I certainly suffered less ridicule once I did.

“I can’t believe you would bring a Black person here!” his mother hissed…”

“…failed to contemplate whether or not her whitewashed upbringing conferred any sense of self, belonging, or identity.”

“Bearing the additional weight of “being too sensitive” forced my despair fully underground,”