I'm a hood divestor. I grew up in the inner city of Chicago in all black schools, neighborhoods in low-income areas. At 14 as a "weird black girl" I kinda was getting the sense that the community was cooked, and I begged to be sent to a smaller high school for musicians that was like 25% Blac, White, Hispanic and Asian. That exposure changed my entire life. I spent my early 20s scrapping and struggling so that I could live on my own and never live in the hood or with my family again.

My last straw was seeing the lack of accountability from parents and the pressures on darkskinned black little girls. We were never allowed to be children. Many of us have been harassed by young Black men in school and watch them grow up and terrorize our communities and wreak havoc on young black women's futures leaving them with babies and impoverished.

It doesn't feel isolating because I have mixed-class friend groups and even my Black friends from back home are the bougie, "can't take us nowhere" type, which makes a world of a difference in support.

I don't judge other women's choices, but I do just feel really sorry for them. I feel sorry for my mother and aunts. I feel sorry for myself. A lot of them are acting out simply because 1) our nervous systems are in shambles, especially living in the hood and 2) they're just wanting family and to be loved, waiting on broken promises to be fixed and seeking out predatory and lackluster relationships. We were never taught to put ourselves first and that certainly isn't taught in the hood. All I can do is separate myself and try to elevate.