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“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
― Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.”
― Essays on Economics and Economists
― Essays on Economics and Economists
“The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America. When you are black in America and you fall in love with a white person, race doesn’t matter when you’re alone together because it’s just you and your love. But the minute you step outside, race matters. But we don’t talk about it. We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive. And we don’t want them to say, Look how far we’ve come, just forty years ago it would have been illegal for us to even be a couple blah blah blah, because you know what we’re thinking when they say that? We’re thinking why the fuck should it ever have been illegal anyway? But we don’t say any of this stuff. We let it pile up inside our heads and when we come to nice liberal dinners like this, we say that race doesn’t matter because that’s what we’re supposed to say, to keep our nice liberal friends comfortable. It’s true. I speak from experience.”
― Americanah
― Americanah
“Survival is insufficient.”
― Station Eleven
― Station Eleven
“Geopolitical and demographic forces are so rooted in the unchangeable that political action often generates little but noise.”
― The Accidental Superpower: Ten Years On
― The Accidental Superpower: Ten Years On
Umair’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Umair’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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