Coming Home

by Brittney Griner

The system put a mark on us. You’re not the same as everyone else. And nobody ever asked who we were. As Black and brown people, it’s as if we were born guilty. —Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five

That’s the funny thing about time. Most of us want more of it because our lives are moving so fast. But while time is a blessing, too much can feel like a burden.

When you’re Black, your behavior is never just about you. It’s about your entire community.

They weren’t asking God for proof of His existence. Our survival as a people was evidence enough.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones. —Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa