I also learned a lot about silence that summer. Courtesy of Audre Lorde’s “Sister Outsider”, I faced the false sense of security I found in silencing my Blackness. I realized that because other voices would always be privileged over my own, that because violence camouflages itself in the absence of words, I had to speak up -- literally and figuratively. Highlighting my metaphorical voice involved understanding the idea of intersectionality. For me, this meant confronting that though there are many facets to my identity they all concurrently exist and choosing to focus on one identity at a time functioned as another form of silencing. Intersectionality introduced to me to misogynoir -- what I now know fueled the earlier self hatred in my life.