Keyara Jackson

“I love you so much I spend all day with you, and it still isn’t enough for me,” he kept going. I stopped breathing. “I love you so much, if I can’t skate with you, I don’t want to skate with anyone else.” Holy. Fuck. “I love you so fucking much, Jasmine, that if I broke my ankle during a program, I would get up and finish it for you, to get you what you’ve always wanted.”
― Mariana Zapata, From Lukov with Love

“It’s just too fucking much to always have to be angry and alert. To always have to be ready and willing to challenge whiteness. To always have a perfectly pithy tweet or a thousand-word screed ready in response to the next Trayvon Martin, the newest Sandra Bland, and the latest Eric Garner, and to feel all the same feelings again. And again. And again. I just wanted a fucking break.”
― Damon Young, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker

“Things don’t have to stay as what they started out as.”
― Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes

“I think about how she just gave gave gave gave gave gave gave because life took took took took took took took. I think about how I took took took took took from her. [...] I think about how black women are socialized to be enduring and steadfast and forgiving and giving giving giving so much that there's nothing left of them but dust. I think about how this dynamic exists both within America's general white dominating culture and in black American culture.”
― Damon Young, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays