The Rock and The River

In his quest to learn how to act, Sam continues to be frustrated. While the not guilty verdict suggests that Sam’s decision to testify was indeed a meaningful way to act, the police stopping Raheem after he picked up Bucky presents the persistence of abuse by authorities and casts Sam’s action as futile.

When the police shoot Stick, Sam recognizes that “it was too late to change anything” (247). However, Sam’s emotions overtake his reason. When Stick is shot, and Sam is prevented from comforting him, he experiences anger for the first time, explaining, “Until then, I had never known anger, the kind of coiling rage that slid sharp through my gut. I had never known how much one moment could hurt” (246). He destroys the block tower, explaining that he was “fueled purely by the desperate need to make something happen” (262). When that does not satisfy his need for action, he remembers Raheem’s plan to seek vengeance on the police officer who killed Stick. Sam considers that to be the “one other thing I could make happen” and “one other thing that might balance what had happened” (262-263).

In destroying the tower, Sam is destroying his last semblance of childhood and innocence. Stick’s death is the impetus for Sam’s burst of independence and growth, and he feels compelled to act, something that he found difficult before. Sam wants to “balance” things in his unfair world, and he considers the Panthers’ path of vengeance as the ultimate outlet for his rage.

Sam’s questioning by the police illustrates how racism forces Black youths to learn self-advocacy under extremely high stakes circumstances. Sam describes the harrowing experience as the police attempt to manipulate and trap him. The level of self-advocacy that Sam must learn far exceeds the typical skill of standing up for one’s self that is part of personal development. The consequences of Sam not learning this skill are also much greater than those faced by white Americans.