Kay Peebles

“I know Mark doesn’t particularly care for alcohol, but he now tells me he’s collecting either sherry or port, I never know the difference, and what matters to him isn’t the alcohol itself but that it’s from when Andrew Jackson was president. So I ask him who Andrew Jackson is and why he likes him so much. Mark explains that Jackson’s the greatest president America has ever had, that he was ruthless, a populist and an individualist, and that he “got stuff done.” He also spilled a lot of blood expanding the territory of the United States, sent five Native tribes out onto the Trail of Tears, but Mark doesn’t mention that.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“There is no God, child. There’s religion but there’s no God of theirs. Their religion tells that we will get our reward in the end. However, it apparently doesn’t say anything about their punishment. But when we’re around them, we believe in God. Oh, Lawdy Lawd, we’s be believin’. Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient.”
― Percival Everett, James

“The citizen of the Southern states becomes a sort of domestic dictator from infancy. The first notion he acquires in life is, that he was born to command, and the first habit he contracts is that of ruling without resistance. His educations tends, then, to give him the character of a haughty and hasty man, - irascible, violent, ardent in his desires, impatient of obstacles but easily discouraged if he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville

“White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another. I imagined it was because so often they had no need to survive, but only to live.”
― Percival Everett, James