Tricks for Free (InCryptid #7)

by Seanan McGuire

“I don’t know if you’ve looked at me recently, but you may have noticed that I am not, in fact, a white person. I am, rather, quite brown.” “I did notice that,” I said carefully. “One of my great joys here at Lowryland is walking through the Park and knowing that people from all over the world, from all walks of life, are able to come and enjoy what we’ve created without fear of racial profiling from the cast. We can’t control what the other guests do, and yes, we’ve had a few incidents over the years, but every cast member treats every guest with equal courtesy, at least to their faces.” Sophie’s expression turned hard. “Bring in guards and thorough searches, and that changes. Suddenly it’s the guest with the unfamiliar accent who gets ‘randomly’ selected for further screening. Suddenly it’s the man with the faded gang tattoos who has to walk through the metal detector three times. David Wilson died because someone snuck a knife into the Park. That’s tragic. All my sympathy goes to his family. I will lose a hundred Davids before I let children who look like me—children who look like anyone—start feeling like their skin color means they aren’t allowed to have access to the magic we give to children who look like you.”