Entry one Jane Steinbeck

I walked into the grocery store, just the way everyone else did, calm and collected. I wandered over to the dog food section, making sure to pick out the beef packets my dog adored so dearly. Like a natural reaction the woman beside me clutched her shiny black purse, her forehead wrinkles deep and her braids tight. In the corner of my eye I spotted two security guards, eyes glued to the security footage. It seemed to these people I wasn’t something to protect, but to be protected from.

Entry two

I looked in the mirror, at my dark chocolate skin, radiated by the sun. The people, they see my difference, the part they don’t understand, that doesn’t fit into their understanding. They say ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but my skin already proves everything they think they know. They support the movement, yet you can’t reap what you do not sow. The words are left unsaid, yet their actions say everything, so much that the silence is deafening.