Between the World and Me

I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.

I was a curious boy, but the schools were not concerned with curiosity. They were concerned with compliance. I loved a few of my teachers. But I cannot say that I truly believed any of them.

The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine.