You see, I am a wife and mom of seven. Through all the crazy chaos of my life, it is hard for some people to believe that I am still sane and genuinely happily married for almost fifteen years. When people ask, “How do you do it?” I tell them this truth: Anybody can get married. However, staying married is a whole different story.

People are much deeper than stereotypes. That’s the first place our minds go. Then you get to know them and you hear their stories, and you say, ‘I’d have never guessed.’ ~ Carson Kressley

Inspired by James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the one hundredth anniversary of the emancipation” originally published in The Progressive magazine, from December 1962. A piece written in a time when seemingly everyone was celebrating freedom, Baldwin takes it upon himself to iterate to his fifteen-year-old nephew who he was born to be, what shackles society would try to put on him, and his obligation to his community.

While many are taken aback by these senseless acts of violence, I believe that these killings are part of a larger war on the black body, started not by the pulling of a trigger, but by the images that are placed in the media for our consumption.

We all have that one thing that we would change about ourselves physically, and if you say you don’t, then you’re lying. Whether it’s smoother skin or a taller physique, we all secretly desire some form of improvement. But why?

The Style Rant is a regular column that addresses some topic related to personal style. Sometimes it is literally about fashion and sartorial style; other times about social interaction, entertainment, or some other topic that has caught my attention.