enemy

I’ve habitually, if unconsciously, compared myself to other white women who, in far greater numbers than women of color, are granted competitor status in America’s Olympics of life.

Somehow, through the ebb and flow of primary school politics, I had made myself an enemy. Out of nowhere, she had decided to take a grudge against me, and pursue it passionately.

It bothered me for a few good weeks, but after careful consideration, I decided that in fact it did not suit me to have an enemy. One day, when our teacher was out of the room, I came at her with a 2B pencil, and that was that.

“Love me or hate me, it’s still an obsession,” sang the Nicki Minaj of 2006, L