Your mom is a traitor. D. J. Pierce, spitting on the ground beside Bird’s sneakers. Everyone knew his mother was a Person of Asian Origin. Kung-PAOs, some kids called them. This was not news. You could see it in Bird’s face, if you looked: all the parts of him that weren’t quite his father, hints in the tilt of his cheekbones, the shape of his eyes. Being a PAO, the authorities reminded everyone, was not itself a crime. PACT is not about race, the president was always saying, it is about patriotism and mindset. But your mom started riots, D. J. said. My parents said so. She was a danger to
...more
