This week in Sernett there were some interesting and upsetting themes. Firstly, there was a strange theme of self-hatred in some of the readings, the most upsetting being Jarena Lee. Reading about her attempts to take her own life was really distressing, especially knowing the difficulties she was facing both in her private life and public religious life. There was also a large amount of judgement by some of the women writing towards their communities, such as in Rosa Young’s writings where she discusses topics like how many in her community have apparently become disinterested in marriage and the issues of poverty. This judgement of community can also be seen in Amanda Smith’s writings both in relation to the white religious meetings she attended and in her dealings with the AME. While personally I feel Smith had more ground to be judgemental than Young on many points it was satisfying to read about the two women working to make their communities better.