Today's writing

I spend the afternoon at Gaylord’s, my favorite coffee shop. It’s the neighborhood hangout – crappy art on the walls, Ms. Pac-Man machine in the corner, students crouched over notebooks, first-daters checking each other out. I order a small coffee and nurse it at a table by the window.

I live off Piedmont Avenue, a clutch of boutiques, bookstores, and restaurants. When Kelly visits she sneers, uses words like white and gentrified. What’s up with the white people who can’t stomach each other’s presence? What’s with that self-hating racism?