When No One Is Watching Quotes

“People bury the parts of history they don't like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Sydney.” Theo is grinning as he calls my attention back to him, though his eyes are somber. “I need you to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. I’ll give you mine. We’ll figure it out because we don’t have any other choice.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“They can break, but they can't erase," Gracie says. "They can build but they can't bury us.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“My neck and chest go hot in a flash and I look away. I should just start building my cabin alongside Fuckboy Creek because obviously it’s where I intend to spend the rest of my days.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“I need you to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“In all the times I'd moved in New York, I'd only thought about how safe the area was for me, not what my presence meant for people in the neighborhood. Not about what advantages I had that they didn't. I was poor, too, after all, even though I had figured out how not to be, for a little white at least.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“When I think of a Black community, the first thing that comes to mind—even if I don’t want it to—is crime. Drugs. Gangs. Welfare. That’s all the news has talked about since I was a kid. Not old people drinking tea. Not complex self-sustaining financial systems that had to be created because racism means being left out to dry.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Well, a big part of it is how people addicted to crack were treated back in the day.” I sniff and start walking. “People acted like those addicts were soulless zombies, or jokes, or problems to lock away and take their babies from. Now white people get hooked on something, and we’re building fancy new facilities to research how to fix things.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“He chuckles. “Depends on who you ask. Get in now if you want that good money, bro. I can hook you up.”

He hands me a card, which I take with pinched thumb and forefinger because he’s sitting here in tightie-whities and I don’t know where he pulled it from.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“The North does not remember; in fact, the North has a super-selective fucking memory. As if slavery was something that happened down there, even though there were enslaved Africans building, planting, and harvesting in colonial Brooklyn alongside the Dutch.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“They can break, but they can't erase. They can build but they can't bury us.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. . . . The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth. —W. E. B. DU BOIS, FROM BLACK RECONSTRUCTION (1935)”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“The dozens and dozens of plant clippings I’ve been ignoring out here have mostly managed to survive, at least. Some things do that without always needing help. It’s pathetic as hell to be outdone by a cherry tomato bush.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“It strikes me that it’s pretty typical that I’d discover a goddamn conspiracy theory, infiltrate a secret research center, kill a bunch of bad guys, and still end up not saving the day.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“One time when I was about eight, I woke her up to tell her a monster was living under my bed. She told me to get the .22 and shoot it, then take my behind to sleep.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Theo is on my side. But Drea was on my side, too, wasn’t she? Until money made her betray me.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“I need you to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. I’ll give you mine. We’ll figure it out because we don’t have any other choice.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Oh wait. You’re Kim’s latest? Weren’t you at the house last summer?” the husband asks while Sydney’s gone. “She always picks up the most interesting playthings. I guess you do, too.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Sunday school teacher why Jesus would forgive Lou for hitting my mom instead of just making him stop it if he really was so powerful.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“I’m not the only one who needs this right now. Our kiss is like two drowning people searching for a life preserver, finding each other instead, and deciding that roaring waves aren’t so bad if you can fuck in the lulls between them.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“It’s better this way; a warm body in bed is nice in the winter but it’s too damn hot for cuddling in the summer unless you want to run the AC nonstop, and I don’t have AC-nonstop money at the moment.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“You work at the public school. This is going to be an independent school priced just high enough to do the work of segregation for the people who will send their kids there. In the building that was one of the first schools for Black children in America.” Kendra shakes her head. “I doubt it was purposeful, but ain’t that something?”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“You’re just trying to create a false sense of camaraderie because you think it’ll make me trust you. Then you can convince me to sell so you can pocket that sweet, sweet commission.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“While Sydney makes for a nice fantasy, my reality is being stuck in a co-owned house with a woman who barely acknowledges my existence, let alone our relationship.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Addiction is a hell of a disease. I can’t even feel good that the cops showed up because jail won’t help that guy, either. I regret letting them know he attacked me and sending them after him, though maybe I’ve saved the next person the guy might have encountered.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“really am an asshole. My girlfriend is leaving suddenly, probably cheating on me, and I’m jealous of the lobster rolls and amenities she’s going to enjoy.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“I’ve been asking a lot of her while being too empty to give back,”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Not old people drinking tea. Not complex self-sustaining financial systems that had to be created because racism means being left out to dry.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“hold my cup awkwardly, knowing this is some kind of test but unsure whether it’s to see if I’m dumb enough to believe there’s a poison that works only on white people or dumb enough not to.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“My hair is gray, but my gray matter is still functional, thank you very much.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching