The Devil Takes You Home

by Gabino Iglesias

Women are pillars. The only thing that changes is what or whom they hold up. Take a woman out and you’re left with just the spaces between the other elements and a lot of debris.

Loved this quote. I believe it's 100% true.

Being broke is not a financial status; it’s a state of mind. It breaks you. Every setback pushes you closer to believing you don’t deserve better, that you’re struggling because you deserve it, because you’re worthless.

#Poverty

How much is your life worth? I’ll tell you: the value of your life is less than the craving of a desperate junkie who breaks into your house to steal your shit and finds you there. Your life is worth less than a jealous husband with the wrong idea and a gun in his trembling hand. The value of your existence is much less than that of your life insurance in the eyes of a dejected spouse. If you’re Black or brown, the value of your life is less than the fragile masculinity of a cop who wants to feel superior or a racist who wants you out of the way so they’re not forced to face someone they don’t understand. El valor de tu vida es lo que vale el segundo en que alguien aprieta el gatillo, el segundo en que alguien pone toda su ira en su mano y te clava un cuchillo. Not enough? Think harder. The value of your life is zilch to most people. That’s why they sell you food that will kill you. That’s why they put poison in the water and don’t care if you get cancer. That’s why they allow you to rely on our shitty health system and allow insurance companies to deny you coverage based on a ridiculously long list of preexisting conditions, one of which is probably being alive. Your life is precious to you but disposable to others. That’s the rule of the game, the only one that matters.

This sums up life.

The thing about humanity is that it’s always worse than the worst you can imagine. We are base, vile creatures rutting in the muck we’ve created, our eyes looking up at a poisoned sky we’ve populated with ghosts to help us sleep at night, to allow us to come up with reasons to do the things we do.

This is more true than even I'd like to admit. But I've seen it. At the highest levels. #Humanity

What people with money don’t understand is that most poor people’s problems can be solved with money. There are problems that won’t go away no matter how many bills you throw at them, but for people like me, for folks whose nightmares have names like hunger and eviction, money is a wonderful thing that can make tribulations disappear in a matter of seconds.

People w/ $ love to say "throwing money at a problem won't solve it." That's because their problems are different.

This ain’t my first day as a brown man in this country. Your puto presidente calls me a rapist and your uncle votes for him because he wants a tax break or some shit. People from my barrio are thrown in cages after some asshole pulls their kid away from them and you keep your mouth shut because the folks on TV have told you we’re all coming in and taking your jobs, right? I haven’t seen a single white person step up to another white person in my whole life on this side of the border. I don’t give a fuck about what you have to say right now. When you see some racist shit going down, you speak the fuck up. Your words will mean something…and so will your silence.”

100%

Ignorance is dangerous, but knowing takes time and effort, and that’s something many of us don’t have.

100%

That’s how systemic racism works. It was so dumb it was almost funny. It was the story of my life: my education and my résumé never looked as good or as trustworthy as a white man in a suit.

#SystemicRacism