Lies We Tell Ourselves

by Robin Talley

The police aren’t here to help us. Their shiny badges are all that’s stopping them from yelling with the other white people. For all we know they trade in those badges for white sheets at night.

SOME OF THOSE THAT WORK FORCES ARE THE SAME THAT BURN CROSSES

“Now you listen and you listen good.” Her voice is so quiet it scares me. “Nobody’s going to let us be anything. We have just as much right to this world as they have, and we are not going to wait around for them to give us permission. If we have to prove it to them, we will, but I don’t ever want to hear you talk that way again.”

“Other people will always try to decide things for you,” she says. “They’ll try to tell you who you are. Remember, no matter what they say, you’re the one who really decides.”