This memoir spoke so much truth and I am in awe of how Wajahat Ali went through so many childhood (and adult) traumas and betrayals, dealt with being homeless and having his parents go to jail…and yet, become this accidental activist and moving writer.
Notable lines:
“For many, resisting means protesting. For the rest of us, our resistance is simply walking out of our house and breathing, just holding our head up, smiling, having hope, and telling our children that America belongs to them.”
“That push and pull, the perpetual tug of war between xenophobia and acceptance, is a perfect microcosm of the lived experiences of so many Americans who are still told to ‘go back.’”
“Like I said, we all have accents, but only some of us deemed foreigners.”
“Whoever controls the frame has the ultimate power and can determine, shape, and distort how you, the audience, see reality.”
“We spend our entire lives hijacked by ‘what will people say?’ We are obsessed with it. We do everything we can to show our good ‘face,’ even sabotaging our own happiness in the process. We give up so much for people who really don’t know us or care about us and who won’t even come to our funeral, because we’re too consumed and self-absorbed, running the same race, asking . . . ‘What will people say?'”
“My people were more than just cannon fodder or terrorists or the end of punch lines. Our stories, cultures, languages, religions, and lives were rich, infused with vibrancy that could benefit the world. We just needed some miners to dig them up and share them.”
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