You are special! Now stop being different

A fundamental battleground for every civil rights movement has been rejection of the idea that you're the problem and a demand for culture and systematic change

Let me tell you about my relationship with the school desk. From my first day at Penny Camp Elementary School in 1982, it was fraught.

This is how it went down: Five seconds into class, the foot starts bouncing; 10 seconds in, both feet; 15 seconds, I bust out the drums! After a few minutes, it’s all over. I’m trying to put my leg behind my neck. No, that desk and I didn’t get along. For some kids it was just school furniture, but for me it was a form of enhanced interrogation that would have made Dick Cheney smile.

I was