JACQUELINE WOODSON

“Brothers is the baddest. Then comes Dominicans. Dominicans don’t mess around. I’m cool with Dominicans though. They don’t mess with me, I don’t mess with them.”

I lay back on my bed and listened to my brother Newcharlie talking. We had shared this room since the day I was born. And I swear since the day I was born, he’d been going on about who was the baddest. Used to be Puerto Ricans were the second baddest, but somewhere along the road their status dropped....

Jacqueline Woodson received the 2001 Coretta Scott King Award for “Miracle’s Boys.”