Had the amazing and liberating experience of living in a Native American culture that had no preconceived notion of what a black woman “should” be like. And so, they allowed me to be…me. For the first time in my entire life, in my late 20s, I experienced what you’re yearning for. I wish to God all Black women could, just once, be free to just be. The myriad ways it changed and deepened me cannot be fully expressed in words. The pain of not being allowed, you expressed in heart rending detail here. Bless you for that…