Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

“When all their killers got off. But after a while it happens so much…you just stop paying attention.”

This quote from Cam with regard to the shooting of unarmed Black men by police reveals his privilege and Jess’s issue with him that he fails to identify throughout the text. Living in an affluent neighborhood, he ignores the vast number of wrongful deaths because he feels as though he has nothing to fear. Whether that is true or not, the fact that the deaths have no impact on him exemplifies why Jess feels he is out of touch with his ethnicity.

“In twenty-four hours, all my secrets will come out. No more hiding. Parents’ Weekend and Mom and Dad can’t be avoided. […] And no one knows what I’ve done—at least not yet.”

These thoughts by Nivia are an example of foreshadowing, as Nivia has just returned from painting over the Jabec work. It also foreshadows Nivia’s development throughout the text. Although she herself does not realize it—and the “secrets” she is referring to here concern the piece she just painted—she will ultimately be forced to reveal even more about herself throughout the text as she shows her sketches to the school for the competition.

“Here at Caswell, color may fade—for a while anyway, except when it’s needed for brochures or diversity experiments—but out there, it’s front and center always. Don’t forget that. The law is where you can find sturdy footing.”

Nivia’s dad uses the titular line “color may fade” as he explains to her why she cannot pursue a career in art. He believes the color of his skin is an important part of his life due to the prejudice he has faced because of it. Meanwhile, at Caswell, they live largely in a bubble, where all of the students are wealthy and educated, therefore allowing the color of her skin to “fade” and become significantly less important.

“There we were. The Eccentric, the Sneakerhead, and me, the Nerd. Traversing nearly one million square feet of floor space like Masters of the Retail Universe!”

This quote from Shawn comparing his journey with his two friends to an epic adventure—like what would be seen in Star Wars—conveys not only his sense of humor, but also how he deals with his social anxiety. As he explains to Dayshia later, his “thoughts get all over the place sometimes” and he struggles to express how he feels (91). Through the use of humor—and by comparing situations in his life to media he watches—he is able to better handle his anxiety and social situations.

“The words rolled out of you, so matter-of-fact. I’d never heard anyone refer to gayness in such a casual way. It wasn’t a slur, or a takedown. It was a window opening to a whole other world I’d never imagined. A window I wanted to lean through and take in every detail of the landscape for as far as the eye could see.”

As Tessa is flippant and straightforward about Cassie’s sexuality, Cassie herself grapples with the idea of her feelings for Tessa and her own sexuality throughout the story. Here, she is metaphorically comparing Tessa’s reference to her sexuality as a “window” to allow her to see into the world of being queer. It is important that she says she would like to “lean through” the window and look as far as she can—without actually stepping through. This helps to explain her feelings of relief at Tessa’s death, as she is not ready to admit her queer identity or do anything more than look at it from a distance.

“Hey, Randy, you won’t have a heart, and apparently because of that Band-Aid, I won’t have a brain, but Falco don’t even have the courage to eat a real sandwich. […] all the delis we passing on this yellow brick road, and this fool gon’ ask the wizard for peanut…butter…and jelly.”

This quote is an allusion to the story The Wizard of Oz. Just like The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy travels through a magical, foreign land to find her way home, the boys pass through a “foreign” land of delis and sandwich advertisements. Although it is right there in their backyard, it is foreign in virtue of their lack of access due to their families’ lack of wealth.

“And then Flaco returns from the kitchen with four bowls, a box of cereal, and a half gallon of milk. ‘Don’t worry,’ he says. ‘I got sugar.’”

At the conclusion of “Ingredients,” after the expectation has been built that the boys will be eating the sandwiches, Flaco instead returns from the kitchen with cereal, milk, and sugar. These are the titular “Ingredients,” as the boys’ poverty keeps them from enjoying the sandwiches they dream of, advertised everywhere on their walk home. This conveys the theme of Living Between Two Worlds, as the boys experience one world in the messaging around them and their dreams, but in reality they live in another.

“Sometimes our father says Black like it’s a bad taste in his mouth. Which is weird since all of us who live in this house are Black, including him.”

This instance of irony—couple with the fight that almost breaks out between Joni’s father and her uncle—characterizes her father as someone who is out of touch with his ethnicity and prides himself with being “better” than his wife’s family in Missouri. Ultimately, Joni is able to recognize the flaws in his feelings, instead reconciling with Junior and understanding the importance of her roots in Missouri.

“I don’t tell her that I’ve been too nervous to wear my natural hair curly because I was afraid of what everyone at my super-white school would say. They already tease me enough, saying I’m ‘not really Black.’ Sometimes I just don’t want to draw any more attention. Our hometown is only twenty miles outside of Chicago, but they’re completely different worlds.”

These thoughts from Joni convey the theme of Living Between Two Worlds. In Joni’s wealthy, white school, she battles with something as simple as the way that she wears her hair, not wanting to stand out any more than she already does. However, she feels as though her grandmother would not understand this, as she is proud of her own roots and her skin color—something Joni grapples with throughout the text.

“Sobechi finds that some small gate has opened in him, a single lock expertly picked.”

This metaphor—comparing Dez as a locksmith that “picks” the lock on his heart and opens it to metal music—conveys Sobechi’s feelings as he discovers what it is like not to live a structured, academic life. She “unlocks” his life to music, emotion, and feelings that he had not yet felt in his life.

“To be honest, I never understood why he wanted to be with me. I was a year younger, never the star of anything, and wasn’t blessed with beauty like Tish, who all the boys wanted. Don’t get me wrong, I was cute. But let’s just say I felt lucky to be his girlfriend.”

These thoughts from Keri convey her deep feelings of insecurity as well as the harmful feeling that she is not good enough for Lucas. Lucas, in turn, plays on these insecurities, forcing her to dress how he wants, do her hair a certain way, abandon her friends, and act the way he wants her to—ultimately convincing her in turn that she needs him to control her.

“I hated my boobs. They were so small. Lucas always said he wished I had boobs like Dara.”

This quote conveys just one of the many instances where Lucas verbally abuses Keri and plays into her feelings of insecurity. The internal conflict that is created in Keri—battling with her feelings of insecurity—also leads to an external conflict with Dara. Because Lucas likes her “boobs” better, Keri dislikes Dara without actually getting to know her. However, ironically, Dara is the person in whom she discovers the Importance of Support Systems, as the two bond together over their mistreatment by Lucas and Derrick.

“Big Red is my horse—he got to the farm the same year I was born. Growing up, it seemed like Big Red was the only one to understand me. Sometimes, it still feels that way.”

As Tank battles Societal Expectations Versus Being the Authentic Self, he finds support from his relationship with his horse. He struggles to reveal his true feelings to his parents, who would not support his sexuality because of their religion, but he is able to find comfort and support from Big Red.

“I’ve realized that I’m a lot like the sun—the way I hide myself in the darkness.”

The sun, present throughout the story as Tank and Skyler discuss their queer identities and their feelings for each other, becomes a metaphor for how Skyler feels about himself. He sees the beauty in it, despite it being a “dying star” (211) and thinks of its setting as a form of “hiding.” Similarly, he fails to show his true self to the world and instead hides in darkness.

“Through the steam his skin is sun-beaten tough. His large nose and lips belong on someone much older, like my dead father. How can eighteen look like that?”

Just as Danté discovers that John is an enslaved person who lived in the 1840s, he examines John and is shocked by how he looks. This reveals Danté’s obsession with beauty and his lack of understanding of his history: He is critical of John’s “sun-beaten” look despite the fact that it comes from his enslavement, revealing Danté’s ignorance.

“Everything you know about physics tells you that where you go from here is a predetermined arc. Unless some new force changes your trajectory, your destiny is to fall back to the sticky floor with this problem still firmly in place.”

This quote introduces the extended metaphor explored throughout the text. Clara’s literal jump on the dance floor—during which she is assaulted—is representative of her “jump” into new territory through that same assault. She will be forced to come back down eventually to the “sticky floor” to deal with the fallout of what she has experienced. In her mind, just as “physics” have laws that must be followed, she too considers the “laws” that control sexual abuse for woman, such as the victim blaming and gossip that follow.

“Things would be different in America. You could make other choices. Better ones. Start fresh. But here you are, hovering over this dance floor, and the only thing that has changed is the location.”

These thoughts from Clara convey the disillusionment that has occurred for her during her time in America. She thought that coming there would change her life for the better, yet she instead continues to struggle with poverty, her mother’s depression, and being forced to live with her large extended family in a small home. And now, adding yet another layer to her disillusionment, she is sexually assaulted and has little faith in the situation being handled correctly.

“People buy cigarettes to smoke and I don’t actually do that. But I couldn’t tell anybody why this happens, why I feel better afterward. Because the words to try to explain it just don’t make sense anymore. Nothing does.”

This revelation from Lena—that she buys cigarettes and burns them without smoking them because they remind her of her sister—are the first instance of foreshadowing in the text. They hint toward something being wrong with her family, specifically Madeleine, with the text building up to the revelation in the climax that Madeleine has died by suicide.

“I wonder if you don’t know how people really feel about you until you’re dead. Would they wish you back? Would they think the world was better off without you in it? Would people cry if I jumped? How would Madeleine feel?”

As Lena asks herself these questions, it reveals her internal conflict with her own depression and grief over Madeleine’s death. In particular, her question of how Madeleine would feel shows her extreme grief and even bitterness at Madeleine for what she has done. Lena struggles with these feelings throughout the text, until she finally confides in James and the two remember Madeleine together, sharing their grief and revealing the Importance of Support Systems.

“I have a lot of memories of this small town, so being in Parrish Point feels like returning to visit an old friend. An old, racist friend.”

As Devon has spent several summers with her grandmother, she has fond memories of things like riding bikes, eating ice cream, and climbing trees—things she is unable to do in the city. However, as she grows older, she discovers both the overt and covert racism there. These thoughts convey the idea of race as a social construct, one that does not exist for young children but, sadly, becomes clear to them as they grow up and become more socially aware.

“His mother never hurt him, at least not physically, but he’d been on the wrong end of her rages too many times. They terrified him, made it so he couldn’t wait until the next morning when school started. He would stay there all day if he could. And he tried. He joined just about every club at school […] anything that kept him away from home.”

Although Garry experiences emotional abuse and trauma from his mother, he also discovers that something good has come from the trauma: In avoiding her, he discovered his love for school and ultimately, coding. Coding becomes an important part of his life, allowing him to learn, escape his reality, and meet his friends and Inaaya at the Hackathons each year.

“Crystal had been accepted early to Duke on a full academic scholarship, and was smarter—book and street—than Mak could ever dream of being. Yeah, she cussed like the very concept of verbal communication depended on it, and tossed the n-word around like a Frisbee, but in the grand scheme of things, did that actually matter?”

These thoughts from Mak convey her first feelings of questioning her mother’s judgment and prejudice over her idea of “the ghetto.” Her mother dislikes Crystal and her mother for living in poverty, acting like it is their own laziness and unwillingness that keeps them in that situation. However, Mak has the emotional intelligence to recognize that where someone lives does not define how they are as a person, instead seeing who Crystal is apart from what part of town she lives in. Similarly, recognizing her mother’s hypocrisy also allows her to see through Kamari, realizing that he is a good person and forming a relationship with him.

“I thought you would be kinda judgy and standoffish […] but you really surprised me […] you have this…openness about you. Shit’s dope.”

This ironic twist occurs in the denouement of the text, wherein Kamari reveals that he, too, had prejudged Mak and was surprised when he got to know her. In her own struggle with her preconceived notions and pressure from her mother, it never occurs to Mak that Kamari, too, would have reservations and judgments about Mak based on his initial perception.