Monday, October 4, 2010

I, too, am a black girl.


A beautiful young sister Janine Kali Simone wrote a Note to Self after watching the interview that Steve Forbes did with Jay-Z and Warren Buffett.

I wanted to respond.

Monday, October 04, 8:54PM

Dear, dear Janine.

I watched the Steve Forbes conversation as I sat in my best friend's bedroom - the only place I can hijack wifi. Somewhere around that 30 min mark I got up to toast a bagel. I turned up the volume on my starved-to-get-it 13" MacBook Pro to try to hear it in the kitchen. Refrigerator. Weeks old bagel. Conventional toaster oven. "Toast," "Dark." Refrigerator. Whipped butter. Grape jelly. Turn to watch the flashing colors, too far to see the images and too low to hear the voices of ... the men.

I imagine I was groomed to invest as a child, considering today putting money in green technologies instead of writing letters to creditors - DO NOT CALL. I imagine I sold crack and then hustled equally as hard to get on a track. I see myself in an expensive, tailored pant suit with suspenders sitting right in between Forbes and Jay. Wearing red lipstick and red bottomed heels. I'd be pondering the steps I took to rise to the top of the Human Capital industry - finding ways to articulate the things that seemingly came naturally. My laugh as distinct and memorable as Jay's, and my assuredness parallels Buffett's.

DING! Bagel medium brown. Hot too the touch. I wonder what catering is on site in Buffett's building.

I, too, am a black girl.

(Read more on Attorney Street HERE.)