The Names of All the Flowers Quotes

“Junior has always been bad. Bad is a self-fulfilling prophecy that, heard enough times, is believed: I am bad. The constant question, Why are you so bad? That time he stole. All the times he stole. He is always stealing, always wanting more. The answer he receives is always no -- no matter how practical and from the heart the thing is that he desires -- because he will surely ruin it, for he is bad and he must be punished for his badness. This is where we diverge. I become a black woman in the way I have been taught: silent, undeserving, inadequate in every way. And he becomes a black man: unpredictable, scary. Bad.”
― Melissa Valentine, The Names of All the Flowers