Dearest Tayari
The dead eat everything—our sense of belonging, our place, and our memories are halved due to the disruption of death. For the past four months, death notices have consumed my social media timelines: Rana Zoe Mungin (COVID-19-related), Leilani Jordan (COVID-19-related), Dez-Ann Romain (COVID-19-related), George Floyd (police brutality), Breonna Taylor (police brutality), and many more. We’ve read their stories and shouted their names, but they never met one another, while we’ve collectively met all of them.
What has connected their deaths? Racism. Not even a master storyteller could have created such a seamless through line that juxtaposes a pandemic and institutionalized racism. The book critics would have said, “It’s unimaginative, too on the nose.” But Black folks have always had to stretch their
