Culture As Career

Racialized self-regulation ensures I’ll never retire.

I was born Black and female, so I work. My work is to quell the rage.

I am permeable, and this is the work. To allow the toxins of trauma to seep from my pores in a palatable way; to seal my orifices to keep social poison at bay. My melanin is a marker of my vulnerability. I am a pincushion for public outrage, a target that bears the wounds of historic…