Summary

At the beginning of this chapter, Ward shares statistics concerning the poverty rate among African Americans in the South. She concludes that, according to the statistics, their lives are worth nothing. The factors that lead to tragedy, despair, and self-hatred are inherited.

After Joshua’s death, Ward lives and works in New York City. She lives with rich White friends and cleans like a maid because she feels beholden to them. Later, she lives with her boyfriend who charges her rent. As she moves from place to place she feels confused and depressed. She spends a lot of time drinking and smoking weed.

Ward frequently looks at the train tracks and considers suicide, but wonders how her family will feel to lose her, too. When she considers slitting her wrists she gets a tattoo of Joshua’s signature across her left wrist...