"There is no collective slavery revenge fantasy among black people, but I am certain, if there were one, it would not be about white people, not at all. You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body." Roxane Gay, "Surviving Django" "But all our phrasing-race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy-serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth. You must never look away from this. (Image credit: Bryan Bedder) Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me “Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it. I was seven years old." Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Suddenly, he paused, looked at me intently and said, "Son, you're a black male, and that's two strikes against you." To the general public, anything that I did would be perceived as malicious and deserving of severe punishment and I had to govern myself accordingly. "It was the last day of school, and I was walking with my dad, preparing to leave. Chamberlain, she'd probably be working for another one.” Robert Stephens, Kansas City, MO Chamberlains' before.It wasn't that Emira didn't understand the racially charged history that Kelley was alluding to, but she couldn't help but think that if she weren't working for this Mrs. She didn't mean to sound flippant, but she doubted that Kelley could really tell her anything she didn't already know. “'You're not the first black woman has hired to work for her family, and you probably won't be the last.' 'Okay.?' Emira sat down. "Let me tell you here and now as a black person, we don't expect charity, we just expect the trust and dignity, to which the white person is entitled in this world by default." Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age
(Image credit: Scott Olson) Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society