The Weight of Blood Quotes

“You, my child, were created in a hurricane, leaving destruction in your wake. You, as they say, are a storm with skin. Death and rebirth will follow you everywhere. How can one man who knows nothing of the weight of blood tame you? For wherever you go, there you are.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Become so drunk on life and love that it blinds you to the hate threatening to drown you. Chew on grief for breakfast, devour aches for lunch, inhale life’s acid, let it burn the costume he has forced upon you.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Your bloodline was marinated in rage.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Your bloodline was marinated in rage. There will be pain in carrying this dark secret. A pain you must endure for others and for yourself. This sickly power you hold without hands will eventually burn until you no longer can hide it. You must learn to control it. Or it will control you. But be not a doormat. You can ease the pain by leaving all that you know. Become so drunk on life and love that it blinds you to the hate threatening to drown you. Chew on grief for breakfast, devour aches for lunch, inhale life’s acid, let it burn the costume he has forced upon you.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“When you have kids, what is one thing you'd do different than your parents?"
"I'd love them for who they are. Not who I want them to be.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Springville was also the type of town where racism was passed down like family jewels.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“No matter what she did, she could never escape being her father’s greatest mistake. A mistake carved in her features, painted on her skin, knitted in her hair. She would never be good enough or white enough. For him. For the kids at school. For the women in the photos plastered on her closet walls. She hated them.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Comprehension is key, and that hasn’t exactly been mastered by the citizens of this country.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“You’re also pushing this so you can look like the perfect little ‘white ally,’ thinking that’s gonna make my brother stay with you as he rises to the top. You trying to look like you were always down, the woke bae we invite to the barbecue. This whole charade is all about you!”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“It’s like, unless we had proof, people wouldn’t believe the fucked-up shit we went through. I just didn’t think I would catch something happening so soon.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“And I would counter if racism is ever truly fair? There are always consequences, both seen and unseen. In fact, I gather it’s one of the reasons the state worked so hard to brush this under the rug. Because if people knew revenge of this magnitude was even a remote possibility, there would be far less incidents of racial injustice in the world.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“No one stops in Springville except ghosts.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“This is what you’re not allowed to see. The school system pulled this out of the curriculum. Parents complained it was ‘too disturbing.’ Probably worried”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“There will be pain in carrying this dark secret. A pain you must endure for others and for yourself. This sickly power you hold without hands will eventually burn until you no longer can hide it. You must learn to control it. Or it will control you. But be not a doormat. You can ease the pain by leaving all that you know.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“must be so exhausting being so many people for so many people.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“His friends were bullies. Racist, asshole bullies, which made him just as much of an asshole.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Who cares if he was the only Black guy in their crew? They never treated him different. They didn’t see color.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“everyone would want to talk to him about Maddy, but he had to remain unfazed, the same composure he kept whenever anything happened to Black people and they wanted unsaid permission from him to speak about it freely. Because if Kenny was okay with it, then it must be okay.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Cause no matter what you do, you can't outgrow, out-lie, out-perform, out-play, out-run or, out-joke being different. And after a while it starts hurting like in your chest, being something you not. The older you get and the more you learn just how different you really are, you get tired of trying to blend in. You get lonely, even when you surrounded by people”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“And instead of holding the community at large accountable for their actions, everyone has continued to place blame on the greatest victim, creating a monster out of a young girl and using her legacy as a scapegoat to avoid self-reflection.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“A terrible sadness filled her stomach, the aching hunger for well-lived life.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Maddy picked up her silver paddle brush. Forty strokes every night kept the naps away, Papa always said.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“But the kitchen made her happy, and her father loved her cooking—the only thing about her that he did love. She glanced at the minuscule leftovers on the stove, after he’d gone back for thirds.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“sometimes you have to, like John Lewis said, ‘Get into good trouble, necessary trouble,’ for your voice to be heard.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Or was told how I’m very articulate or very pretty for a dark-skinned girl? Or accused of being too aggressive for simply stating an opinion?”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Just about everyone would want to talk to him about Maddy, but he had to remain unfazed, the same composure he kept whenever anything happened to Black people and they wanted unsaid permission from him to speak about it freely. Because if Kenny was okay with it, then it must be okay.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“And instead of holding the community at large accountable for their actions, everyone has continued to place blame on the greatest victim, creating a monster out of a young girl and using her legacy as a scapegoat to avoid self-reflection. The very title of this podcast, Maddy Did It, shows a lack of understanding of the consequences of one’s actions. To me, Maddy didn’t do anything.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“I’m not evil. And I’m not trying to hurt you by going to prom. I want to obey. But . . . I also want to start living a normal life now.”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Already she’s deemed softer, more delicate and sensitive. Peep how you’re caping for her now! She acted like being Black was the worst thing that ever happened to her, and she don’t even realize how good she got”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood

“Guess I’m just a little . . . off.” “Well, Mercury is in retrograde, so the whole world is a little off. But you’ll be doing a lot more of this in the future, you know?”
― Tiffany D. Jackson, The Weight of Blood