After reading this article, the quote that most stood out to me was, “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.” When Als says this, he means that his mother would rather them stand by and let it happen. She knew that if they decided to go out there and se what is happening/ try to stop it, they could end up being killed in a blink of an eye. This plays into the overall narrative how it was extremely unsafe for them to stand up to others, and how it could be the end of their lives if they did.
Another quote that stood out to me was, “The world around us was not the one we had worked hard to achieve but the quiet, degraded world that our not-country said we deserved. We couldn’t keep nothing, the elders said, not even ourselves.” This quote is basically saying that African Americans over the years have tried to gain rights, as well as an equal standing with white people. However, the white-run society will never allow that too happen, now matter how hard African-Americans fight.
One quote that I picked out was, “Would any of it dismantle the economic discrepancies, for instance, that defined our de-facto underclass, that kept us scavenging for a lifeline, even if it was just a pair of sneakers snatched through a pane of broken glass?” This reinforces the point made by the last quote, saying that hope fades and comes back, but what is the point? Als says that there was never any clear example for him growing up, of how hope could make a difference in his life. Although hope is important, Als finds it hard to see the point in it, as making a change is so unbelievably hard in this world.
Making a change is always hard in this world but it doesn’t have to be seen by you. A very typical anecdote would be about someone who plants a tree but only his children benefit from it years later. The idea of hope should extend beyond someone’s life time and into the future. Because not to act out of a lack of hope is damaging, and destroys the idea of “what could have been.”
I like the point you bring up about the tangibility of hope and how a young Als had no example of what exactly hope could accomplish. Luckily, what a young Als did witness examples of is perseverance and determination. Even when hope seems pointless, a person’s level of hope remains a crucial determinant of their future.
I think that hope is a difficult state to exist in, especially in volatile social climates such as the one we are in. I wonder how many blacks such as Al were able to persevere through the injustice and inequality of their time.
There is consistently a situation in minority communities that encourages hopelessness where people find it hard so live a normal everyday life, but it is commendable that people such as Als find ways to look for the good and keep hope for the future.