Let me,' said Cass. 'It's just about the only thing that a poor white woman can still do.' Ida looked at her, and smiled. 'Now, don't you be like that,' she said, 'because you can suffer, and you've got some suffering to do, believe me.' Cass handed the driver a bill. 'You stand to lose everything – your home, your husband, even your children.' Cass sat very still, waiting for her change. She looked like a defiant little girl. 'I'll never give up my children,' she said. 'They could be taken from you.' 'Yes. It could happen. But it won't.' She tipped the driver, and they got out of the cab. 'It happened,' said Ida, mildly, 'to my ancestors every day.' 'Maybe,' said Cass, with a sudden flash of anger, and very close to tears, 'it happened to all of us! Why was my husband ashamed to speak Polish all the years that he was growing up? – and look at him now, he doesn't know who he is. Maybe we're worse off than you.' 'Oh,' said Ida, 'you are. There's no maybe about that.' 'Then have a little mercy.' 'You're asking a lot.
( James Baldwin )
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