Summary

In Chapter 9, “Broke,” the author begins by referencing his family’s relatively superficial Christianity, which involved a few daily rituals such as praying before eating, but which never really involved going to church regularly. They were, however, members of what he calls “the church of Kool-Aid” (160), which he describes as a popular beverage with black people. He then describes how his “addiction” (161) to Kool-Aid came to an end when a college-aged friend named Marguerite reacted negatively to it being the only sort of drink he had in his refrigerator.

Marguerite, it turns, out, was the best friend of a woman named Jessica, who was the author’s girlfriend while in college. The two women, the author says, belonged to a group of young, ambitious, relatively wealthy, black college students he calls “the PhDeez” (166), with whom the author spent a lot of social time...