Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson

Everyone else has gone away. And now coming back home isn’t really coming back home at all.

This is the way brown people have to fight, my grandfather says. You can’t just put your fist up. You have to insist on something gently. Walk toward a thing slowly. But be ready to die, my grandfather says, for what is right. Be ready to die, my grandfather says, for everything you believe in.

Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen.

Don’t wait for your school to teach you, my uncle says, about the revolution. It’s happening in the streets.