For Black Women Who Are AfraidAuthor(s): Toi DerricotteSource: Callaloo, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring, 1994), p. 468Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931754 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 20:37

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toCallaloo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:37:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

FOR BLACK WOMEN WHO ARE AFRAID

by Toi Derricotte

A black woman comes up at the break in the writing workshop and reads me her poem. But she says she can't read it out loud because there's a woman in a car on her way to work and her hair is blowing in the breeze and, since her hair is blowing, the woman must be white, and she shouldn't write about white women whose hair is blowing, because maybe the black poets will think she wants to be that woman and be mad at her and say she hates herself, and maybe they won't let her explain that she grew up in a white neighborhood and it's not her fault; it's just what she sees. But she has to be so careful. I tell her to write the poem about being afraid to write, and we stand for a long time like that, respecting each other's silence.

Callaloo 17.2 (1994) 468

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:37:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions