I am convinced that the Dreamers, at least the Dreamers of today, would rather live white than live free.

But race is the child of racism, not the father.

they had known something terrible about the world. Perhaps they so willingly parted with the security and sanctity of the black

The black world was expanding before me, and I could see now that that world was more than a photonegative of that of the people who believe they are white.

She said that he once hammered a nail into an electrical socket and shorted out the entire house.

This is the practiced habit of jabbing out one’s eyes and forgetting the work of one’s hands. To acknowledge these horrors means turning away from the brightly rendered version of your country as it has always declared itself and turning toward something murkier and unknown. It is still too difficult for most Americans to do this.

gasoline.

because these laws were essential to the security of my body.

The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country’s criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority.