Coates starts off by writing about his time in Howard University which he refers to as the Mecca. Here he saw a variety of black people and spent much time reading books in its library. Reading about black history, finding answers to questions he asked in the past. Everyday Coates would learn new information stating “Things I believed merely a week earlier.. could be smashed to splinters by another,” showing how information was contradictory. At the Mecca, Coates later talks of the women he meets there and how they impacted him. First is the girl with the dreadlocks who was bisexual. She taught Coates to love in new ways, with a softness that his grandparents did not have. She also taught him that love was “an act of heroism” which led him
