“It is as if we have reentered the past and are living in a second Nadir: It seems the rate of police killings now surpasses the rate of lynchings during the worst decades of the Jim Crow era. There was a lynching every four days in the early decades of the twentieth century. It’s been estimated that an African American is now killed by police every two to three days.” RaceRacismBlack Lives MatterJim CrowBlmLynching Book:The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race Source: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
“I read about Ahmaud, I said. I read about Breonna. I don’t say, but I thought it: I know their beloveds’ wail. I know their beloveds’ wail. I know their beloveds wander their pandemic rooms, pass through their sudden ghosts. I know their loss burns their beloveds’ throats like acid. Their families will speak, I thought. Ask for justice. And no one will answer, I thought. I know this story: Trayvon, Tamir, Sandra. Cuz, I said, I think you told me this story before. I think I wrote it.” RacismPoliceBlack Lives MatterPolice BrutalityGeorge FloydBreonna TaylorAhmaud Arbery Author:Jesmyn Ward
“I'm writing about the things I see all around me. Growing up in Mississippi, I've seen how these backward ideas about class and race and healthcare and education and housing and racism impact everyday lives. For example, my mother wouldn't let me go to my homecoming dance because the yacht club where they were having the dance threw a fundraiser for David Duke, an ex-Klan member, when he was running for governor of Louisiana. So I grew up seeing how personal politics could be.” WritingRunningMotherGrowing UpRacismLet MeEverydayHealthcareEveryday LifeHomecomingYachtLet Me GoFundraiser Author:Jesmyn Ward
“There are things about the South - the politics, the classism, the racism - that I hate, and I want to be here to fight those things. I don't want to be in California or Michigan just complaining about them. I'm here trying to make a difference in the way I can, writing about it. And I want younger people, especially kids from my community, to see that being successful doesn't have to mean leaving a place like this. You don't have to trade in your family or your sense of belonging for that.” PeopleWritingTryingMeanKidsHateFightingCommunitySuccessfulRacismI HateTradeLeavingComplainingOur FamilyMaking A DifferenceBeing SuccessfulBelongingI Want YouClassism Author:Jesmyn Ward
“By the numbers, by all the official records, here at the confluence of history, of racism, of poverty, and economic power, this is what our lives are worth: nothing.” NumbersPovertyRecordsOur LivesEconomicRacismOfficialsEconomic PowerConfluence Book:Men We Reaped: A Memoir Source: Men We Reaped: A Memoir
