Finding Me: A Memoir

Content Warning: This section mentions and describes domestic and sexual abuse, racism, bigoted language and violence, and substance use and addiction.

From a very young age, Viola has to run from people who bully her for being Black. In third grade, she runs home at the end of every school day to escape a group of boys in her class who chase her and scream hateful racist insults. On one particular day, a snowstorm leaves huge mounds of snow everywhere. Viola usually takes off her shoes to run, as they have holes in the bottom; however, on this day, the snow prevents her from doing so, and she is caught. Terrified and desperate, she pleads with the group’s ringleader, a Portuguese boy, pointing out that he is Black, too. The boy, who refuses to identify as Black, is furious; he yells at her to never call him Black again and then lets her go after punching her arm.

When Viola narrates this incident to her mother, Mae Alice, whom Viola calls “MaMama,” Mae encourages Viola to stop running and defend herself. She gives Viola a crochet needle and tells her to stab the boys the next time they threaten her, forbidding Viola from coming home and crying about them again.