All Nigga, Granddaddy liked to say. Because of this, we lived lives of desperate hope, afraid that white people’s disapproval equaled our destruction. Everything we did, whether we were aware or not, we did with white people in mind. Our life’s aim was to make them believe we had value and worth, so we spent our nights trying to figure out what they liked, then spent our days trying to do it. We still haven’t pleased them, and truth is, we never will.
