“…a reconciliation with the forces that make us all tragic figures.” – Major Jackson

America made me a tragic figure when I was born Black and it decided that was something it didn’t like.

The man who molested me made me a tragic figure when I was 8. The man who witnessed it and did nothing compounded the tragedy. (Are they even men at all?)

The man (?) who got on top of me and rubbed himself against me while I was sleeping and therefore, without my consent, made me a tragic figure when I was 23.

Patriarchal society further made me a tragic figure because I didn’t call the cops because rape was the only “sex” crime I knew.

The man (?) who tried to put himself inside me after I’d already said I didn’t want to have sex made me a tragic figure at 33.

America again made me a tragic figure when it forced me to look at the Black bodies it murdered and brutalized in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2020.

I’ve been a tragic figure since the day I was born and I will likely be made a tragic figure over and over again until the day I die.

Reconciliation? I think not. Complete and utter destruction is much more likely.