A common theme seen in many of the podcast I listened to was the racial injustice amongst the youth in the community. African American kids are looked upon much more strictly by the police than white children are. Due to this, their parents are forced to give them the “talk” that makes the agree with the police no matter the situation. They must not look suspicious in any way, or else the police will be quick to jump on them.
Jesmyn Ward touches on a similar topic. Ward says, “It’s a cliche to say that “reading saved my life”, but in Ward’s case, it may be true. The stats in Mississippi are as merciless as the storms and the probability was that Ward’s fate would follow the grim path of her characters: “You have a small array of bad choices and you pick your poison and that’s your life.” When she was 12 a wealthy lawyer for whom her mother worked as a housekeeper offered to send her to the private Episcopalian school his own children attended. She was the only black girl until her senior years. But although it was “really rough”, she credits the bullying she experienced with motivating her: “All I thought about was to escape: ‘I want to get out. I want to go away to university.’”
Just as some of these kids face “discrimination” from the police, Ward was the only African American girl in her school. She credits the bullying as her motivation. This helped sculpt her into a writer and a better woman in general.” Similarly, these kids who are looked upon more harshly by the police, can use this as a means of motivation too.
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