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" (Have you ever been to the birthday party of someone who has a really mixed group of friends and the white people start singing the “regular” version of “Happy Birthday,” which, honestly, rivals “Streets of Philadelphia” for atonal glumness, and the black people launch into Stevie’s version and then everyone gets really confused because the white people have no idea what just happened? That’s my FAVORITE thing, because I like to imagine that for a brief second the white people think that they’ve slid into an alternate reality and they have to question everything they know to be true and, honestly, that’s reparations. A split second of reparations.) "

R. Eric Thomas , Here for It; Or, How to Save Your Soul in America: Essays


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R. Eric Thomas quote : (Have you ever been to the birthday party of someone who has a really mixed group of friends and the white people start singing the “regular” version of “Happy Birthday,” which, honestly, rivals “Streets of Philadelphia” for atonal glumness, and the black people launch into Stevie’s version and then everyone gets really confused because the white people have no idea what just happened? That’s my FAVORITE thing, because I like to imagine that for a brief second the white people think that they’ve slid into an alternate reality and they have to question everything they know to be true and, honestly, that’s reparations. A split second of reparations.)