Make up a flimsy excuse (say, rumors of contagion) to incarcerate the inks conveniently out of sight in "inkatoriums." And then. Then come the constantly redefined, impossible criteria for "real" citizenship. Already there are the designated neighborhoods, segregated transit, curfews, English-only language ordinances, extrajudicial deportation, and the complacence that lets it all happen. Trying to regulate the unwanted into oblivion is, unfortunately, old hat it's old hat even in Ink. No surprise, then, that in Sabrina Vourvoulias' Ink, the dehumanizing methods leveled against "inks" - people foreign-born or of foreign ancestry, tattooed by the government to broadcast their status - sound so familiar. The cruelty of the present echoes past cruelties that were never reckoned with the history of so many countries is pockmarked with so many horrors that one need only look backwards to imagine the worst that lies ahead. It's sometimes surprising to look at a book outlining a bleak future and see how startlingly accurate it's become - but it shouldn't be. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Ink Author Sabrina Vourvoulias
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