What happens when we only see the stereotype. In "The Aliens," a flash fiction piece by Lynn Mundell, maybe aliens are among us bathed in stereotypes.
The army sergeant was disgusted by the breastfeeding mother at Target, who thought that all people in camo were scary, as were the two nearby Goths with the black makeup, who were freaked out by the staring missionaries, who were most shocked by the tattooed cashier...
"Courage is elusive. Dreams shatter and crumble. Can we win this struggle, this war? Hate storms around us, a gale of emotions that we slowly, ever so slowly, know we must control."
"After Death" by Nashae Jones is a short story about what connects us to each other, our mothers.
“Who are you?” she had asked. “Where do you come from?”
“ I a woman,” Qui, the woman from Vietnam had told her.
“Good, good. You are a woman,” Quinn had said.
Encouraged, Qui continued.
“I mother. I have son.”
Quinn had faltered, her eyelashes blinking rapidly against her powdered cheeks.
