Born a Crime

are bad is extremely unfair, especially considering the fact that you yourself were not very good in school and I am, after all, ...

throw it in the dustbin. “Rubbish! This is rubbish!” Then she’d start to launch into me and I’d say, “Ah-ah- ah. No. You have to ...

same. My mom would have given me proper sit-down hidings if I’d given her the opportunity, but she could never catch me. My gran ...

love. My mom was on her own with a crazy child. I destroyed pianos. I shat on floors. I would screw up, she’d beat the shit out ...

“Look, did you or did you not do something wrong?” “I did.” “And then? I hit you. And now that’s over. So why sit there and cry? ...

mouth out with soap. For serious offenses I’d get sent to the principal’s office. Only the principal could give you an official ...

you.” That was the first of three times the school made my mom take me to a psychologist to be evaluated. Every psychologist who ...

thought a rule wasn’t logical, I’d find my way around it. The rules about communion at Friday mass, for example, made absolutely ...

they wouldn’t let me have any. I’d argue with the nuns and the priest all the time. “Only Catholics can eat Jesus’s body and dri ...

They never had a satisfactory reply. One morning before mass I decided, I’m going to get me some Jesus blood and Jesus body. I s ...

“No, no,” I protested. “You’ve broken the rules. That’s confidential information. The priest isn’t supposed to repeat what you s ...

said he was going to beat me up, and I brought one of my knives to school. I wasn’t going to use it; I just wanted to have it. T ...

Funnily enough, I didn’t get into trouble with my mom when it happened. There was no ass- whooping waiting for me at home. She’d ...

blood? Why shouldn’t he have those things? Of course he should have them.” When they made me see a therapist for laughing while ...

stupid, she wouldn’t punish me for breaking it. Both she and the psychologists agreed that the school was the one with the probl ...

everything else was up for debate. She taught me to challenge authority and question the system. The only way it backfired on he ...

you wanted to live in the suburbs you’d have to find a white family renting out their servants’ quarters or sometimes their gara ...

This white family also had a black maid who lived in the servants’ quarters in the backyard, and I’d play with her son whenever ...

slowly and you could burn shapes and letters and patterns. I was fascinated by it. That afternoon I was teaching this kid how to ...

how to burn his name into a piece of plywood. At one point we took a break to go get a snack. I set the magnifying glass and the ...