#eric

I'm wondering whether I can explain," said Lee. "Where there is no likeness of experience it's very difficult. I understand you were not born in America." "No, in Ireland." "And in a few years you can almost disappear; while I, who was born in Grass Valley, went to school and several years to the University of California, have no chance of mixing." "If you cut your queue, dressed and talked like other people?" "No. I tried it. To the so-called whites I was still a Chinese, but an untrustworthy one; and at the same time my Chinese friends steered clear of me. I had to give it up. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#chinese-american #experience

You all know from past experiences that the white man only sees the bad that our people do to them. They are blind to their own indiscretions. ↗

— Violetta Botzet Luetgers

#minnesota #native-americans #suland #experience

Never Let anyone tell you that you can't; show them that you can. ↗

— Gloria Mallette

#books #family #marriage #psychological-suspense #family

it ain't as hard as picking cotton ↗

— Wynton Marsalis

#american #bebop #family #jazz #life

At first, I was shocked that Diane could even suggest this family reunion [on television], and then I realized this is just the way of the world, or at least the way of fin de siecle America. Not only would the next revolution be televised, but so would every other little stupid thing. It was already happening: Television reunions between adopted children and their birth parents... ↗

— Elizabeth Wurtzel

#society #television #family

On Slavery: The saddest slap in the face is we have NO monument, no real statues or memorials, no special day of Atonement or Remembrance (NOT ONE), no thanks for 400+ years of free labor, forced servitude across the Trans-Atlantic, ass beatings, buying ourselves and families out of slavery, rape and plunder...but everyone else has monuments, special museums, and even movies. This is what America thinks of black people, so-called black president and all, who has been largely silent on this subject...we'll even celebrate Leprechauns, Easter Bunnies, and Secretary's Day before we acknowledge our history. ↗

— Brandi L. Bates

#african-americans #black-panthers #black-people #blacks #huey-newton

Maybe that's what living in America does to you: it spreads you into far distances until you're just little bits rolling apart. ↗

— Marina Budhos

#family #immigration #family

I am pleased to see that information campaigns, such as the America's WETLAND effort, are getting the message out, and people are beginning to realize that wetlands loss in Louisiana affects us all. ↗

— John Breaux

#am #america #beginning #campaigns #effort

A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can. He can hold in his beak Enough food for a week! But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican? ↗

— Dixon Lanier Merritt

#food

.. but I know somebody must be thinking about us because if they weren't we'd just disappear just like those Indians who used to climb the pueblos. Those Indians disappeared with food still cooking in the pot and air waiting to be breathed and they turned into birds or dust or the blue of the sky or the yellow of the sun. There they were and suddenly they were forgotten for just a second and for just a second nobody thought about them and then they were gone. ↗

— Sherman Alexie

#food