5 Quotes by Brittany K. Barnett

But it was 1996, and America's War on Drugs was in full throttle. Resources for drug treatment were scant, while money was being poured into law enforcement and prisons. People with addiction like Mama didn't stand a chance. And neither did their kids caught up on the front lines.

At school, the DARE program brought friendly police officers into our classrooms to convince us that drug abuse was everywhere, a mortal threat, and that only the weakest, most morally bankrupt individuals would succumb to it-the losers, those who didn't love themselves enough or weren't strong enough. I loved Mama through and through, but it was hard to to internalize the message.

No matter how many times my dad urged me to reach for the stars, my understanding of the universe was still confined by the world' limited notion of what a Black country girl from the South could do or who she could become.

Teachers, lawyers, social workers, activists-anyone who works with the directly impacted, anyone who confronts the system day in and day out-will tell you that residual trauma is real.

A statue of a lone Confederate general towers over the Clarksville town center. To hear my grandpa tell it the general was built looking sternly over the Black side of town as a warning regarding where the town's heart lies. As if there were any question.