“Standing by my mother’s living-room window, I tried, tentatively, to ask her why our world was burning, burning. She gave me a forbidding look: Boy, be quiet so you can survive, her eyes seemed to say.”

This quotation from Als is to show the reader how dangerous it was for even African-American boys at the time. As he previously mentioned, “…a young boy, a fourteen-year-old black kid, Richard Ross, had been killed by  a cop- a detective named John Rattley- in Brownsville.” The police violence that occurred not only against African-American men but also against African-American boys in their community, gave Als’ mother a fear that if he were caught in the riots he may also be killed by police, especially since “protestors started flinging bottles and stones at the cops”. The dangerous environment created by police taking place outside their home in Brownsville reveals why Al’s mother gave him a “forbidding look”.

“I don’t remember exactly how many times we moved; in those days, my focus was on trying to win people over, the better to protect my family, or—silently—trying to fend off homophobia, the better to protect myself. My being a “faggot” was one way for other people to feel better about themselves. My being a “faggot” let cops know what they weren’t.”

This quotation from Als shows how racism was not the only problem he faced. He also faced homophobia. His quote saying “My being a “faggot” was one way for other people to feel better about themselves.” relates back to when he mentioned how the same people who called him that were the people who “took the chance to protect their families and themselves”. This could show that the people around him may have felt a sense of empowerment because of the fact that he was queer. While they themselves were being discriminated against, they discriminated against someone else to feel better about themselves. His line about his queerness letting cops know what they weren’t, reveals how the divide widens between the oppressors and the oppressed. It gives the police an unjust feeling of empowerment because they are not like the minority.

“What I felt during that first wave of panic was a muscle memory of riots and rootlessness; the thought of those cops took away my feeling of being at home in my home.”

The experiences of Als’ childhood created this “muscle memory of riots and rootlessness”. In this part of the article, Als is explaining how the demonstrations occurring made him feel unsafe in his own home. He mentions that he lived in a predominately white neighborhood and that this made a “Panic set in when” he “heard the helicopters flying low and the police sirens going.”, revealing how even now there is a feeling of inequality and the look his mother gave him to keep quiet still applies to the present day. I found this part of the text particularly interesting because regardless of who you are and what you look like, you should be able to feel safe in your own home. It showed me that if a feeling like this is still able to be felt, we need to make a change in our society.