One of Our Kind Quotes

“Blackness is not something you can erase. It’s more than just skin color. It’s who I am. It’s in my blood. In my culture. In my memory,”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“In a peripheral way, Jasmyn has always suspected that the self-care industry was a scam gone too far. Now, she's sure of it. The world would be a better place if people spent more time taking care of one another instead of just taking care of themselves.”
― Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind

“This is America. Safety and beauty cost money.”
― Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind

“The higher up in a tree you go, the farther away you are from your roots.”
― Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind

“King, tell me what’s going on,” she pleads. “Baby, you already know,” he says. Jasmyn closes her eyes. “They’re turning people white.” He waits for her to reopen her eyes before answering. “Yes,” he says.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Aren’t they the couple who helped found the Liberty chapter of BLM?”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“It’s just the money turning him bougie, Keisha. Swear to God money and property and status will make people forget themselves.” Keisha looks at her with something close to pity. “You go ahead and believe what you want,” she says. “But me and Darlene? We leaving.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Even if it had been an accusation, what is her crime exactly? That she lives someplace safe and beautiful and, yes, expensive? This is America. Safety and beauty cost money. Tricia knows that.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.’ ”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“America as a rigged game of Monopoly where, for four hundred rounds, Black people don’t get to play. Then, for the next fifty rounds, Black people do get to play, but if they start to do well, America burns their cards, burns their money, burns their game.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“The viral videos of racist incidents that flood social media daily. The articles quoting some racist politician or television personality. The seemingly constant news cycle about yet another police shooting. These things don’t happen to her, but they affect her. Every headline or viral video simultaneously depresses her and raises her blood pressure. No wonder even well-off Black people don’t live as long as their white counterparts. The unrelenting stress of racism kills just as effectively as any bullet.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Historic wrongs needed to be redressed. Never mind that white people had been benefiting from their own form of affirmative action since the days of forty acres and a mule.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Imagine, Jasmyn thinks, if racism cost the perpetrator as much as it cost the victim. Of course money alone could never be enough to make up for all the harm, but it was a start.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Hard data backed by rigorous study is hard to deny. We can use it for advocacy—” “Not just that,” Jasmyn says, interrupting Nina as her mind races through the legal implications. “You can use the data to prove harm.” She fast-taps her fingers against the table. “And if you can prove it, you can litigate it. And if you can litigate it, you can be compensated for it.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“You’re trying to prove that being Black in America is like being constantly traumatized.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Blackness is perceived as a problem in this country. Whiteness is good, fair, attractive, intelligent. It allows for individuality, a multiplicity of being. Blackness is its opposite. Bad, unfair, ugly, unintelligent. Not to mention the extent to which all of us Black folks are perceived as being the same.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Catherine Vail is not complacent. She’s traumatized and afraid. She won’t fight because she already knows the cost.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“As President Obama used to say, reasonable people can disagree reasonably.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“All progress for Black people was taken, not given. They’d had to fight.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“For a moment, Jasmyn finds herself overwhelmed by his innocence. He expects to be happy and for life to be fair and for the world to say yes to everything he wants.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“having the same views on how to tackle racism is fundamental.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“Since the dawn of slavery, Black Americans and members of the Black diaspora residing in the United States have experienced and been negatively impacted by structural racism. In slavery’s long shadow, these groups still suffer health inequities and socioeconomic disadvantages.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“My Blackness is not a problem. Racism is the problem.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“The world would be a better place if people spent more time taking care of one another instead of just taking care of themselves.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“I’m rooting for everybody Black.” —Issa Rae”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind

“There are no utopias,” she told him. Certainly not for Black people and certainly not in America. Not anywhere in the world, if she was being real.”
― Nicola Yoon, One Of Our Kind