Reflections

Confessions of a Safe Black Friend: My First Time

Confessions of a Safe Black Friend: My First Time

Do I hold a grudge against an elementary-school-aged boy whose name I can’t even remember? Of course not. Because at the end of the day, what left the strongest impression on me wasn’t even the words that he said. It was how he said them. His self-assuredness chipped away at my own sense of security. His boldness made me feel intimidated. His aggression made me retreat.

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Confessions of a Safe Black Friend: Prologue

Confessions of a Safe Black Friend: Prologue

Confessions is my way of trying to shake off my old habits of appeasing white friends and peers. It is my way of liberating myself to become a more authentic version of myself. I’m sitting on my bed in Boston ready to post this, the beginning of a story, my story, the story of a black woman who is done being safe.

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Volunteering While Black: Experiences from Peace Corps Rwanda

Volunteering While Black: Experiences from Peace Corps Rwanda

Even as the first Peace Corps volunteers were being sent abroad in 1961 to work in the newly independent African nations of Ghana and Tanzania, African-Americans were still waiting for our own second wave of independence at home. Now, nearly sixty years since the Peace Corps was founded, Black Americans have increasingly been among the cohorts of volunteers who go overseas to represent our country around the world, a task as exciting as it is daunting especially when we serve in African countries.

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