The First Ladies

by Marie Benedict

“You must never apologize for a sin someone else has committed,”

their racism isn’t my problem. Racism belongs to the people who are racists.”

There are too many forces in America that would prevent a Catholic from ever becoming president.

I am not oblivious to the shortcomings of the Republican Party. But I cannot see myself turning on the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass—the party that freed my parents, my grandmother, and my siblings from slavery.

“Lord,” I begin a whispered prayer, and I go on to ask that, should anything go wrong in my life, He step in and make the crooked road straight.

Part of the struggle to make change is the struggle to get the right change-makers in place.”

“the stock market crash was not Hoover’s fault.” “That’s not the way the voters see it.” I shake my head. “You’ve seen the newspaper headlines—‘In Hoover We Trusted and Now We Are Busted.’ ” Mary groans. “When will the people realize the president is not God?”

We don’t need white people to save us; we just need white people to be fair and enact laws that guarantee equality.”

I take in the sight of the black rosebushes. In a few weeks, those roses will bloom, just in time for graduation. I’ve started calling my students Black Roses and giving each a fully bloomed rose at graduation. This is my gift, a reminder to each that they are equal in beauty and stature to every other rose, no matter the color. I expect my students to thrive alongside every rose in the world.

“One day, you’ll be scrutinized and scorned, and the next, you’ll be celebrated and lauded. Sometimes by the very same people. You will not be able to control the narrative, but you can act according to your conscience, particularly in your personal life. And at the end of the day, that should be the only measure that matters.”

Inaction in the face of racism is acquiescence to it.”

I remind myself that his view of what Negroes can and cannot do has been shaped by the limits he’s experienced. What he thinks, what he believes, is not his fault.

White folks want us to move on from all the violence that is perpetrated against us, but how can we, when we’re faced with their brutality daily?

“The melancholy doesn’t care if you’re colored or white, at war here or abroad. It takes hold when it feels like it, not when we believe it’s justified.”

“By pursuing the principles we shared, I can honor his memory and the person he wanted to be while trying to forgive the flawed man he actually was.”