shoplifters.
—We
are
shoplifters.
—We only shoplift when we have to sometimes.
—Sometimes counts.
—Of course it counts. Everything counts. But it also counts when people look at you like you don’t deserve to be here.
—We don’t deserve to be here.
—What about civil rights?
—What about ’em?
—Civil rights had to be passed because everybody didn’t think everybody had the right to be in the voting booth.
—So you think there needs to be a “nice neighborhood” civil rights movement?
—I think there is. I think we’re part of it. But I think Malcolm is leading us in the wrong direction.
—I don’t think he should’ve broken our game. I think he’s trying to make it up to us, to get us a new one, a better one.
—Look at this neighborhood.
—I like it.
—Is this the kind of neighborhood you come from?
—Fuck off.
—These people are gonna notice us more. Notice us until someone decides to do something about it. And “doing something about it,” in this kind of neighborhood, means calling someone else to do something about it. Calling the cops. You already found one nosy neighbor spying on us walking. Spying on us when we’re not doing nothing. Just walking home. For all that nosy neighbor knows we just got off work.
—We
all
just got off work at the same time?
—Have you been in a supermarket recently? It takes a hundred people to run a supermarket. Probably more. There’s probably a bunch of people running the supermarket that you never see. It probably takes as many as there are of us just to watch the security cameras and wrestle the shoplifters to the linoleum.
—We should all apply for security jobs. We’d be good at security.
—Why couldn’t twenty or so people who work at a fancy supermarket go in together on a house that’s actually in the same neighborhood as the supermarket? If half of us worked the day shift and half of us worked the night shift it could work out pretty handy.
—I don’t think they’re gonna sign a mortgage over to a bunch of checkout girls and bag boys.
—That’s my point! That’s my point! We need to be around the bag boys and checkout girls and the security people. We don’t need to be hangingout with the people who reject mortgage applications and turn down health insurance requests and deny our civil rights.
—What do you think Malcolm is up to?
—He’s leading us into battle to cement his shaky leadership. But what he should be doing is taking us somewhere where we can get some more recruits.
—How are we going to recruit people?
—You were recruited. So was I.
—Recruited for what? What’s the cause?
—It doesn’t have words yet.
—We’re just getting by.
—That’s the center of it. The civil rights to not be looked down on just because of the way we live off the land.
—We don’t live off the land.
—We do.
—We break into houses and we steal canned goods.
—Listen, if they cut down all the forests and poisoned all the streams and put up a bunch of ridiculous super-supermarkets—then I don’t think it’s right to arrest us for living off the land they gave us. People didn’t shoplift in the Wild West.
—That’s because you would get shot.
—It’s because on the way from your house to the store you passed trees with fruits in them and fields with corn and woods with little rabbits and streams with trout.
—You make it sound like a supermarket, too.
—Food used to not come from stores. It used to be something that was around. So if they filled up the land with bullshit they can’t say I’m bullshit for saying I live off the land when I help myself to what I find.
—I don’t know what the fuck you’re even saying. You don’t know. So how am I supposed to recruit people?
—Do you want to be close to me or far, far away?
—I want to be close to you.
—Then pay attention to the route we’re taking.
—I am.
—And look for recruits.
—You just said these aren’t our
—We
are
shoplifters.
—We only shoplift when we have to sometimes.
—Sometimes counts.
—Of course it counts. Everything counts. But it also counts when people look at you like you don’t deserve to be here.
—We don’t deserve to be here.
—What about civil rights?
—What about ’em?
—Civil rights had to be passed because everybody didn’t think everybody had the right to be in the voting booth.
—So you think there needs to be a “nice neighborhood” civil rights movement?
—I think there is. I think we’re part of it. But I think Malcolm is leading us in the wrong direction.
—I don’t think he should’ve broken our game. I think he’s trying to make it up to us, to get us a new one, a better one.
—Look at this neighborhood.
—I like it.
—Is this the kind of neighborhood you come from?
—Fuck off.
—These people are gonna notice us more. Notice us until someone decides to do something about it. And “doing something about it,” in this kind of neighborhood, means calling someone else to do something about it. Calling the cops. You already found one nosy neighbor spying on us walking. Spying on us when we’re not doing nothing. Just walking home. For all that nosy neighbor knows we just got off work.
—We
all
just got off work at the same time?
—Have you been in a supermarket recently? It takes a hundred people to run a supermarket. Probably more. There’s probably a bunch of people running the supermarket that you never see. It probably takes as many as there are of us just to watch the security cameras and wrestle the shoplifters to the linoleum.
—We should all apply for security jobs. We’d be good at security.
—Why couldn’t twenty or so people who work at a fancy supermarket go in together on a house that’s actually in the same neighborhood as the supermarket? If half of us worked the day shift and half of us worked the night shift it could work out pretty handy.
—I don’t think they’re gonna sign a mortgage over to a bunch of checkout girls and bag boys.
—That’s my point! That’s my point! We need to be around the bag boys and checkout girls and the security people. We don’t need to be hangingout with the people who reject mortgage applications and turn down health insurance requests and deny our civil rights.
—What do you think Malcolm is up to?
—He’s leading us into battle to cement his shaky leadership. But what he should be doing is taking us somewhere where we can get some more recruits.
—How are we going to recruit people?
—You were recruited. So was I.
—Recruited for what? What’s the cause?
—It doesn’t have words yet.
—We’re just getting by.
—That’s the center of it. The civil rights to not be looked down on just because of the way we live off the land.
—We don’t live off the land.
—We do.
—We break into houses and we steal canned goods.
—Listen, if they cut down all the forests and poisoned all the streams and put up a bunch of ridiculous super-supermarkets—then I don’t think it’s right to arrest us for living off the land they gave us. People didn’t shoplift in the Wild West.
—That’s because you would get shot.
—It’s because on the way from your house to the store you passed trees with fruits in them and fields with corn and woods with little rabbits and streams with trout.
—You make it sound like a supermarket, too.
—Food used to not come from stores. It used to be something that was around. So if they filled up the land with bullshit they can’t say I’m bullshit for saying I live off the land when I help myself to what I find.
—I don’t know what the fuck you’re even saying. You don’t know. So how am I supposed to recruit people?
—Do you want to be close to me or far, far away?
—I want to be close to you.
—Then pay attention to the route we’re taking.
—I am.
—And look for recruits.
—You just said these aren’t our
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