Between the World and Me

embodiment

• This need to be always on guard was an unmeasured expenditure of energy, the slow siphoning of the essence. It contributed to the fast breakdown of our bodies.

  BWM-007

• All I see is fear, and all I see is them girding themselves against the ghosts of the bad old days when the Mississippi mob gathered round their grandfathers.

  BWM-005

trauma-and-survival

• I sat there in terror… these officers had my body, commandeered by the state, entirely and without apology.

  BWM-004

• My father beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that is exactly what was happening all around us.

  BWM-003

education-and-formation

• I would watch how black people moved… their bodies seemed as free as Malcolm's voice. On the outside black people controlled nothing, least of all the fate of their bodies.

  BWM-012

• The realization of being far gone, the fear, the unknowable possibilities—the horror, the wonder, the joy—fused into an erotic thrill.

  BWM-011