No One Is Talking About This

by Patricia Lockwood

It was a mistake to believe that other people were not living as deeply as you were. Besides, you were not even living that deeply.

White people, who had the political educations of potatoes—lumpy, unseasoned, and biased toward the Irish—were suddenly feeling compelled to speak out about injustice. This happened once every forty years on average, usually after a period when folk music became popular again. When folk music became popular again, it reminded people that they had ancestors, and then, after a considerable delay, that their ancestors had done bad things.