“Getti, where is this coming from?” Tears spring to my eyes. I try to walk away, but she takes my hand. “What’s going on with you? Talk to me.”

I look at her, and all the words I practiced melt in my brain and ooze out of my skull.

“Ayomide! Speak.”

“I want to be normal. I want to be like everyone else.”

“You want to walk around blinded to racism and injustice?”

“No! That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what exactly do you mean? I need some clarity here.”

“I don’t want anything to do with protests, boycotts, or marches anymore. I love See Us. And I get why it’s important, but I don’t want to sacrifice my whole life for it anymore. I want to go out and be with my friends and do things that kids my age do.”

“So you want to waste your life hashtagging and taking selfies?”

“That’s not all kids like me do.”

“You’re damn right that’s not all. They get pulled over for a busted taillight and never make it home. They find themselves getting rounded up and frisked because they ‘look shady.’ They find themselves with three bullet holes in their chest, taking their last breath on social media. Do you understand what is happening out there?”

“Yes, I get it, but—”

“No, you don’t get it. What is happening to kids like Naija, Dell, and Shawn? They walk out into the street, and it’s a crapshoot as to whether or not they make it back home. And you want to stop fighting because you, what—you’ve missed an episode of the Kardashians? You don’t have enough time to watch your favorite video on the best MAC lipstick to buy and how to make your butt look bigger in jeans? Is that it? Is that the young lady I’m raising?

“Mom—”

“I am not done! You think all of this I am doing is for myself? This is for you! This is so that when you have children, you don’t have to see them in the morgue because of a routine traffic stop.”

“I want to be normal. There’s nothing wrong with that!”

“Sure, you can be normal. You can start right now. You wanna shop around at department stores and not get followed. You wanna walk around in nice neighborhoods and take in the scenery without being stopped and questioned by the cops. Maybe you’d like to experience what it’s like to see flashing lights and not have your heart jump into your throat. You want all that? You got it! Take off the skin you’re in. And then you can be as free as you want!”

“That’s not fair! You know that’s not what I meant.”