This poem “void this misogyny” came from an encounter in my 30s with a freshman feminist who was over-prepared to call any male a misogynist. She eventually called me one. She was an educated Black woman—and I assumed this kind of unjust encounter—such conviction without evidence—would be rare. I was wrong. It turns out that being labeled ultimately subhuman by racist patriarchs was not going to hurt as much as being called a hater of women—especially a hater of Black women. But “void this misogyny” was written before it was clear to me just how deep the hatred goes.

There was only one woman—another educated Black woman—that saw that when my line reads, ‘I hate you,’ she saw the words, ‘I love you.’ But this does not mean that this perceptive Black woman is my friend to this day. No. This confrontational poem is a lose-lose poem. There is loss in any success it has in accurately identifying the female character it tries to possess. There is loss in the repulsion some women will likely feel when they violently assert that my study has nothing to with them or with any female friend they have ever known. This situation is one reason of many why I am unable to encourage the young writer to write stuff like this. The writer’s perception of truth may cause one writer to be free. Freedom in isolation is not very sexy. More of this is in “My Theory of Girl Chasing”…