YA intersectionality

     These are two books that explore the interlocking challenges of race and sexuality in identity formation.

     

The Black Flamingo 

"I am the black flamingo.

The black flamingo is me,

trying to find myself."

     Michael, protagonist of Dean Atla's novel in verse, is growing up in London, learning what it means to be gay and racially mixed.  For his sixth birthday, for example, he yearns for a Barbie doll and gets a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

     Because of singing ability Michael gets accepted to an all boys school well respected for its choir.  It turns out to be a disaster.  Athletes bully him for being in choir.

     For Michael's second year in middle school he transfers to a coed Catholic school where he's told that gays end up in Hell.  He wrestles with his identity, unsure of whether he's attracted to his best friend, Daisy, or his crush, Rowan.

     At university, although he initially doesn't feel Black enough, Greek enough, or queer enough for established campus groups, he is finally able to find a space of acceptance.

     His journey will be reassuring for teens who haven't found their place and enlightening for peers who have or never really had to search for it.

All Boys Aren't Blue

    "There were no books for me to read in order to understand what I was going through as a kid.  There were no heroes or icons to look up to and emulate.  There were no roadmaps or guidelines for the journey.  And again, because I know there wasn't and still isn't much out there, I made it my goal to get this [his memoir] right."

     We've now crossed the puddle from England to America, Plainfield, New Jersey to be exact.  And we've jumped genres from fiction in verse to memoir.  

     "This book is an exploration of two of my identities--Black and queer--and how I became aware of their intersections in myself and in society.  How I've learned that neither of those identities can be contained within a single box, and that I enter the room as both of them despite the spaces and environments I must navigate."

     Writer/activist George M. Johnson has spent much of his life in spaces where he's been defined by difference.  Whites see him as a Black man.  Blacks often other him for being queer.  Because his book is part memoir he shares very candid memories including very painful ones.  Because it's also part manifesto, he calls out dominant society's suppression of differences by pushing the definition of normal.

     Johnson knew that he was different from a very early age.  He preferred dolls and hairstyling to sports and toy trucks.  In his daydreams he was a girl.  He preferred having girls as friends. 

     But he also knew early on that being too different from other boys could be dangerous.  At school recess he came to enjoy double dutch.  One spring day a classmate told him what the other boys were saying about him.  He knew that he had to drop jump rope to fit in with a cultural definition of masculinity.

     Johnson shares his memories right up through college graduation.  They're analyzed not only from experiential perspective, but from societal implications.  For instance, there's the chapter on his learning how to swim.  After describing how it felt, he reminds us that many more Black kids drown than white peers.  The many communities that closed public pools rather than integrating them deprived Black families and children of the chance to learn water safety.

     At the end of his author's note Johnson says:

     "I hope this book will make you laugh at moments.  I hope this book will make you cry at moments.  I hope this book will open you up to understanding the people you may have never spoken to because of their differences from you.  We are not as different as you think, and all our stories matter and deserve to be celebrated and told."

On a purrrsonal note, right now we're getting a lot of precipitation--rain in Maine in the middle of January!  The snow we'd accumulated so far is just about washed away.  I'm so glad I don't have to take the bus anywhere.  Only one problem.  I just realized yesterday while doing the dishes that Eugene's birthday is Tuesday.  I'd like to give him a gift card to his favorite locally owned sporting goods store.  But it isn't even on the bus line.  So his gift will be cash.  I want to also want to give him something personal.  My friend Kate suggested baking cookies.  And he loves his mom's recipe applesauce chocolate chip cookies.  Now I have to figure out how to get to a store where they sell chocolate chips without asking him to drive me.  How I envy people who can drive!  (Jules)

I'm confused.  It's January.  Shouldn't it be snowing? Is this that climate change people keep talking about?  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who accept and value divergence in humanity.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone