Do I wear makeup when I go out in public? I sure do. I wore makeup to work almost every day. On the three times in my life that I dared to show up in public without makeup, at least one person on each occasion told me that I was sick. They presumed I was ill. One supervisor even insisted that I go home. (I didn't.) A co-worker, another black woman who told me that black woman don't need makeup, asked the same thing. "Are you sick?"

I'm not going to say I look ugly without it. I'm just going to say that I prefer not to be considered approaching Death's door, so even if I don't do the full Monty, I do something!