[b]Angie Thomas
People say misery loves company, but I think it’s like that with anger too.[/b]
Well, it is here anyway.
A hairbrush is not a gun.
Not that in particular contexts it can’t look like one.
I hope none of them ask about my spring break. They went to Taipei, the Bahamas, Harry Potter World. I stayed in the hood and saw a cop kill my friend.
Back again to that hairbrush.
Right. Lack of opportunities, Daddy says. Corporate America don’t bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain’t quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don’t prepare us well enough. That’s why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed. Our schools don’t get the resources to equip you like Williamson does. It’s easier to find some crack that it is the find a good school around here.
Now, think 'bout this, he says. How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry we talking 'bout, baby. That shit is flown into our communities, but I don’t know anybody with a private jet. Do you?
No.
Exactly. Drugs come from somewhere, and they’re destroying our community, he says. You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can’t get jobs unless they’re clean, and they can’t pay for rehab unless they got jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That’s the hate they’re giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That’s Thug Life.
One man’s point of view?
This is exactly what They expect you to do, Momma says.
They with a capital T.
There’s Them and then there’s Us.
Sometimes They look like Us and don’t recognize They are Us.
In other words, you’re liable to get it coming and going.
I’ve taught myself to speak with two different voices and only say certain things around certain people. I’ve mastered it.
For some though it’s three or more.