Quote
"You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, “Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist? And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it."

- Junot Diaz (via Tatiana Richards)

Wow…

(via blackspaceandstars)

Gut punch.

(via egoetschius)

(Source: issarae, via aeide-thea)

Photo
In these last few hours of MLK Day, I feel like it’s worth pointing out that my hometown of Grosse Pointe, MI had the dubious honor of hosting one of Dr. King’s final speaking engagements, just three weeks before his assassination.
I say dubious because Grosse Pointe is one of the most racist, backwater, 1% wealth, WASP-ridden towns in the United States, and I mean that statistically speaking, not just from my own shuddering hatred of the place.  Apparently Dr. King’s speech was picketed and the situation broke down: “This situation was so volatile, according to accounts in the Society’s files, the Grosse Pointe Farms Police Chief actually sat on King’s lap in the car ride to the high school in order to protect him.”
Dr King, I’m sorry you had to spend any time at all in that horrible city, but your short, remaining days couldn’t have been better spent.  They still have the audio tape (no digital backup - just a tape) in the school’s newspaper area.  I held it, once, and felt quiet inside.

In these last few hours of MLK Day, I feel like it’s worth pointing out that my hometown of Grosse Pointe, MI had the dubious honor of hosting one of Dr. King’s final speaking engagements, just three weeks before his assassination.

I say dubious because Grosse Pointe is one of the most racist, backwater, 1% wealth, WASP-ridden towns in the United States, and I mean that statistically speaking, not just from my own shuddering hatred of the place.  Apparently Dr. King’s speech was picketed and the situation broke down: “This situation was so volatile, according to accounts in the Society’s files, the Grosse Pointe Farms Police Chief actually sat on King’s lap in the car ride to the high school in order to protect him.”

Dr King, I’m sorry you had to spend any time at all in that horrible city, but your short, remaining days couldn’t have been better spent.  They still have the audio tape (no digital backup - just a tape) in the school’s newspaper area.  I held it, once, and felt quiet inside.