Small Great Things

by Jodi Picoult

“I didn’t get angry. I am angry. I have been angry for years. I just didn’t let it show. What you don’t understand is that three hundred and sixty-five days a year, I have to think about not looking or sounding too black, so I play a role. I put on a game face, like a layer of plaster. It’s exhausting. It’s so goddamned exhausting. But I do it, because I don’t have bail money. I do it because I have a son. I do it because if I don’t, I could lose my job. My house. Myself. So instead, I work and smile and nod and pay my bills and stay silent and pretend to be satisfied, because that is what you people want—no—need me to be.