Identity - Rachel
-“I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”
-“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”
-“Hate gives identity. The nigger, the fag, the bitch illuminate the border, illuminate what we ostensibly are not, illuminate the Dream of being white, of being a Man. We name the hated strangers and are thus confirmed in the tribe.”
-“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”
Anxiety - Erika
- "when I was about your age, each day, fully one-third of my brain was concerned with who I was walking to school with, our precise number, the manner of our walk, the number of times I smiled, who or what I smiled at, who offered a pound and who did not" (24).
- "was this all some elaborate ritual to get an angle on me?...I was sure he was going to make a quick turn into an alley, where some dudes would be waiting to strip me of… what, exactly?...I felt that I had missed part of the experience because of my eyes, because my eyes were made in Baltimore, because my eyes were blindfolded by fear" (126).
- "You have never been afraid of people, of rejection, and I have always admired you for this and always been afraid for you because of this. I watched you leap and laugh with these children you barely knew, and the wall rose up in me and I felt I should grab you by the arm, pull you back and say, “We don't know these folks! Be cool!" (92).
- "My father was so very afraid. I felt it in the sting of his black leather belt, which he applied with more anxiety than anger, my father who beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that is exactly what was happening all around us...'Either I can beat him, or the police'" (15, 16).
Upbringing/Environment -Huy
- "The crews walked the blocks of the neighborhood, loud and rude, because it was only through their loud rudeness that they might feel any sense of security and power(22)."
-“My mother and father were always pushing me away from secondhand answers—even the answers they themselves believed."
- “I was a curious boy, but the schools were not concerned with curiosity. They were concerned with compliance. I loved a few of my teachers. But I cannot say that I truly believed any of them.”
-“To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease."
Perspective - Rachel
-“But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy."
-“I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”
-“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”
-“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”
Struggle -Huy
- "So that America might justify itself, the story of a black body's destruction must begin with his or her error, real or imagined...(96)."
- "They had worked two and three jobs, put children through high school and college, and become pillars of their community. I admired them, but I knew the whole time that I was merely encountering the survivors...(110)."
-“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.”
-“The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.”
Growth - Erika
- "I did not want to raise you in fear or false memory. I did not want you forced to mask your joys and bind your eyes. What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness. I resolved to hide nothing from you” (111).
- "You have to make your peace with the chaos, but you cannot lie. You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured our very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold" (71).
- "There is some passing acknowledgement of the bad old days, which, by the way, were not so bad as to have any ongoing effect on our present. The mettle that it takes to look away from the horror of our prison system, from police forces transformed into armies, from the long war against the black body, is not forged overnight...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" (98).
- “I never wanted you to be twice as good as them, so much as I have always wanted you to attack every day of your brief bright life in struggle...I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world” (108).
-“I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”
-“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”
-“Hate gives identity. The nigger, the fag, the bitch illuminate the border, illuminate what we ostensibly are not, illuminate the Dream of being white, of being a Man. We name the hated strangers and are thus confirmed in the tribe.”
-“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”
Anxiety - Erika
- "when I was about your age, each day, fully one-third of my brain was concerned with who I was walking to school with, our precise number, the manner of our walk, the number of times I smiled, who or what I smiled at, who offered a pound and who did not" (24).
- "was this all some elaborate ritual to get an angle on me?...I was sure he was going to make a quick turn into an alley, where some dudes would be waiting to strip me of… what, exactly?...I felt that I had missed part of the experience because of my eyes, because my eyes were made in Baltimore, because my eyes were blindfolded by fear" (126).
- "You have never been afraid of people, of rejection, and I have always admired you for this and always been afraid for you because of this. I watched you leap and laugh with these children you barely knew, and the wall rose up in me and I felt I should grab you by the arm, pull you back and say, “We don't know these folks! Be cool!" (92).
- "My father was so very afraid. I felt it in the sting of his black leather belt, which he applied with more anxiety than anger, my father who beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that is exactly what was happening all around us...'Either I can beat him, or the police'" (15, 16).
Upbringing/Environment -Huy
- "The crews walked the blocks of the neighborhood, loud and rude, because it was only through their loud rudeness that they might feel any sense of security and power(22)."
-“My mother and father were always pushing me away from secondhand answers—even the answers they themselves believed."
- “I was a curious boy, but the schools were not concerned with curiosity. They were concerned with compliance. I loved a few of my teachers. But I cannot say that I truly believed any of them.”
-“To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease."
Perspective - Rachel
-“But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy."
-“I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”
-“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”
-“I believed, and still do, that our bodies are our selves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh.”
Struggle -Huy
- "So that America might justify itself, the story of a black body's destruction must begin with his or her error, real or imagined...(96)."
- "They had worked two and three jobs, put children through high school and college, and become pillars of their community. I admired them, but I knew the whole time that I was merely encountering the survivors...(110)."
-“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.”
-“The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.”
Growth - Erika
- "I did not want to raise you in fear or false memory. I did not want you forced to mask your joys and bind your eyes. What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness. I resolved to hide nothing from you” (111).
- "You have to make your peace with the chaos, but you cannot lie. You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured our very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold" (71).
- "There is some passing acknowledgement of the bad old days, which, by the way, were not so bad as to have any ongoing effect on our present. The mettle that it takes to look away from the horror of our prison system, from police forces transformed into armies, from the long war against the black body, is not forged overnight...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" (98).
- “I never wanted you to be twice as good as them, so much as I have always wanted you to attack every day of your brief bright life in struggle...I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world” (108).