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1 " There were two brothers, Truth and Lie. One day they get to playing, throwing cutlasses up into the air. Them cutlasses come down and fast as can be-swish!-chop each of their faces clean off! Truth bed down, searching for his face. But with no eyes, he can't see. Lie, he sneaky. He snatch up Truth's face and run off! Zip! Now Lie go around wearing Truth's face, fooling everybody he meet. "
― P. Djèlí Clark , Ring Shout
2 " Girl, every choice we make is a new tomorrow. Whole worlds waiting to be born. "
3 " Reason and law don’t mean much when white folk want their way. "
4 " You see, the hate they give is senseless. They already got power. Yet they hate those over who they got control, who don’t really pose a threat to them. Their fears aren’t real—just insecurities and inadequacies. Deep down they know that. Makes their hate like … watered-down whiskey. Now your people! "
5 " Devil wouldn’t be the devil if he didn’t know how to tempt. "
6 " My grandpappy say when we die, we get our wings back, the ones white folk cut off when we come here. Maybe I’ll fly and meet my mama. Or all the way back to Africy. "
7 " Power to protect. Power to avenge. Power over the life and death of my people. When colored folk ever had anyone offer us so much? When we ever had the power not to be scared no more? Ain’t we been suffering and dying all this time, at the hands of monsters in human form? What difference then if we make a pact with some other monsters? What we owe this world that so despises and brutalizes us? Why lift a hand to save it when it ain’t never done a damn thing to save us? "
8 " We the trickster—the spider, the rabbit, even the fox. We fool those stronger than us. That’s how we survive. Watch out you don’t get tricked yo’self! "
9 " White folk don’t care ’bout pepper and spices. Like they food bland as water. "
10 " They say God is good all the time. Seem he also likes irony. "
11 " Such pain. Sadness for what you lost. Shame at what you could not do. And anger—so much anger. You used that anger, fled from family and friends, then went seeking your vengeance, to etch your own story in blood. "
12 " What I have is beautiful music inspired by struggle and fierce love. What he got ain’t nothing but hateful noise. Not a hint of soul to it. "
13 " Now they really talking crazy. “How can there be more than one tomorrow?” Auntie Margaret sighs. “Girl, every choice we make is a new tomorrow. Whole worlds waiting to be born.” “In some, you accept the enemy’s offer, and all is darkness,” Auntie Ondine says. “Always at this point—the tip of the sword on which your world balances.”I look at Auntie Jadine. What could those things living under Butcher Clyde’s skin offer me to make me betray all I care about? Power over life and death. “And if I don’t accept this offer, then we win? No more Ku Kluxes?” “If you don’t accept,” Auntie Ondine answers, “there is the chance to continue the struggle. The hope at one day seeing victory. No more.” That don’t seem fair. "
14 " Y’all got a good reason to hate. All the wrongs been done to you and yours? A people who been whipped and beaten, hunted and hounded, suffered so grievously at their hands. You have every reason to despise them. To loathe them for centuries of depravations. That hate would be so pure, so sure and righteous—so strong! "
15 " Time to balance the world on the tip of a sword. "
16 " That fluffy white soaked in slave sweat and blood what made this city. Nowadays Macon warehouses still hold cotton, but for local factory mills and railroads. Watching these Klans shamble down the street, I’m reminded of bales of white, still soaked in colored folk sweat and blood, moving for the river. "
17 " Mostly, I think of Sadie. Remembering the light dying in her eyes like a blowed-out candle. It fires an anger in me like an animal clawing to get free. "
18 " This is my pain. My scar to carry. Ain’t theirs to feast on, to suck dry like marrow from a bone. I’ve had enough of monsters, devouring bits of me, trying to eat me up altogether. "
19 " I ain’t no scared girl no more. I hunt monsters—they don’t hunt me. So now I’m about to do something real brave or stupid. "
20 " In Paris, where we was after the armistice. Frenchie gals loved cooking for colored soldiers. Liked doing a heap more than cooking too.” She flashes the wink and smile of a rogue. “Had us some steak tartare and cassoulet, duck confit, ratatouille— "
