Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Fiction | Anthology/Varied Collection | YA | Published in 2019

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Themes

Societal Expectations Versus Being the Authentic Self

Several short stories in the collection explore the teenage struggle to follow the expectations placed on them by society while also remaining true to their authentic selves.

One conflict faced by characters in the collection is their struggle with their sexuality and how their families will react should they embrace that queer identity. In the story “Kissing Sarah Smart,” Devon has always battled with her queer identity after being discovered kissing a classmate, Leslie. Although they did so under the guise of “practicing” kissing, Devon admits that Leslie was her first crush. However, after a teacher discovers them kissing, her dad reacts with anger. Devon notes that she “never forgot the way his eyes bulged as he yelled ‘GAYS,’” and as a result she “never kissed another girl until [her] friend Amy’s drunken advances” several years later (296). Until meeting Sarah, Devon never had a real relationship with a woman, and even during this relationship she hides it from her mother and grandmother. Kissing Sarah makes her “feel like someone’s turned a light on inside of [her], like [she] was a vacant house and a family has finally moved in” (304). This metaphor—comparing her feelings with Sarah to a finally-occupied house—conveys the idea that being herself and being able to love Sarah makes Devon feel as though there is finally life inside of her that is even bigger than happiness.

Similarly, Tank Robinson in the story “Wild Horses, Wild Hearts” develops feelings for Skyler, whose family next door is enemies with his own. The act of admitting his feelings to Skyler and kissing him makes him feel “at home for once,” even though his “parents would kill [him] if they knew [he] was here in the Smiths’ house. They would bring [him] back to life and kill [him] again if they knew [he] had kissed Skyler” (224). Like Devon, Tank finds a feeling of home and happiness through the act of finally exploring his queer feelings, as he battles with what is expected of him by his parents in contrast to who he truly is.

Characters throughout the collection also struggle with their authentic selves when it comes to academic pursuits. They face pressure from their families to commit to education or pursue careers they are not interested in at the expense of their own dreams. In the story “Warning: Color May Fade,” Nivia battles with expectations from her family at the prestigious Caswell Prep. Because Nivia is a student of color “in a sea of white” (42), she is expected to excel academically and then pursue a career in law as her entire family has done. As a result, her family has little regard for art or its utility in the real world. Ultimately, Nivia has the realization that the sketchbook pictures she has secretly been drawing all along are her authentic self, allowing her to claim her identity at the conclusion of the story.

Similarly, Sobechi in the story “Samson and the Delilahs” struggles with academics and his family’s expectations. At the start of the text, his entire childhood is devoted to debate, and he works hard to be the best on his team and win nationals. Growing up, he was forced to constantly practice his speech, pronunciation, and hand movements, even getting “smacked over the head” by his mother with a slipper when he failed to remember his speech (145). However, Sobechi discovers a love for music through his relationship with Dez. He is unable to pursue that love, though, because of how it affects his debate and school. As he hears Dez’s music for the first time, “he feels like he has been struck by lightning. Thunder still rings in his ears. His insides are on fire” and he is “more alive than [he’s] ever been” (162). When his mother discovers his music, she demands that he give it up and never see Dez again—forcing him away from doing what he enjoys in exchange for perfection at school. However, he eventually finds balance, winning debate and then returning to his relationship with Dez—whether his mom likes it or not.

Each of these characters faces an internal conflict in which they battle their own feelings and desires when receiving pressure from external forces to act a certain way or pursue a certain future. Through the challenges they face, they develop strong feelings of who they are—whether it is their queer identity, their love interest, their academic pursuits, or their love of music—overcoming their fear of the consequences they might face by exploring that identity due to pressure from their parents and society.

Living Between Two Worlds

Several stories throughout the collection draw clear lines between the protagonists of the texts and the “other”—with the “other” often adhering to a dichotomy of wealth versus poverty and white versus Black. As a result, the characters struggle to reconcile where they fit in, discovering that their own wealth—or lack thereof—inhibits them from crossing that line and truly experiencing life.

In several of the stories, the Black protagonist benefits from their family’s wealth and situation and are confronted with the world that exists outside their typical lived experience. In “Black Enough,” for example, Cam has the privilege of living in a mostly white, wealthy area in Texas. However, when he spends his summers in Franklin, he is confronted with his feelings of unbelonging as he attempts to fit in by purchasing different clothes, cutting his hair, and using different language in order to fit in in an environment with more Black people that he typically sees in his life back home. Ironically, however, his efforts reinforce his isolation: Instead of being himself, he makes it clear that he is uncomfortable and does not belong. By the end of the story, however, he discovers that it is not his outward appearance that separates him, but rather his apathy toward police brutality and other issues that truly impact people of color, giving him a path to bridge these two worlds.

In the story “Into the Starlight,” Mak faces her own disjointed feelings through her relationship with Kamari. She is initially steered away from him by her cousin, Crystal, and the rumors that she hears about him, as well as her mother’s insistence that he is from “the ghetto” and that she needs to stay away from him. However, once Mak actually gets to know Kamari, she realizes that he is a good person. This leaves Mak stuck between the world she is from—a white, wealthy world of fenced-in homes and good schools—and the world that Kamari is from, opening her eyes to the fact that people from there are not automatically bad people, just because of their situations in life.

Similarly, Joni from the story “Oreo” initially treats her cousins’ home in Missouri as something inferior to her own. Because her family is wealthy and moved away from Missouri to Atlanta, she has had the privilege of living in the city and attending a prestigious school, creating her feelings of dislike for her cousins’ situation in rural Missouri. However, in talking with Junior, she has the realization that she is judging their situation unfairly and that it is not laziness or unwillingness to work that forces someone to live as her cousins do; rather, it is a desire to be there and an enjoyment of that life that keeps them there. Through this realization, Joni discovers an appreciation for her history in Missouri and her family, recognizing the merits of both worlds that she had previously viewed so differently.

Like Joni, Garry in “Hackathon Summers” also tried to separate himself from his family and his roots when he made the decision to move away from his mother in Brooklyn to live with his father in Rochester at the age of 10. Although Garry was emotionally abused by his mother and his decision to move ultimately improved his life, it also created a lack of understanding for his mother’s situation and the struggles that she faces. When she attempts to contact him, he initially ignores her, noting that “the ten years he spent with her could [not] be undone by one ‘I’m proud of you’” (331). As Garry’s mother struggles with her own abuse, drug use, and poverty, Garry has the privilege of separating himself from that situation when he leaves to live with his father. As a result, throughout the text he battles with his position between two worlds: his father’s and his mother’s. Ultimately, however, he comes to the realization that his mother is in fact attempting to make her life better and rebuild her relationship with him.

Just as the collection depicts stories of young people of privilege who battle with their feelings of superiority and disjointedness from the “other,” it also depicts characters who are not living that world and struggle to bridge the gap to privilege. In “The Ingredients,” the young boys walk home from the pool and are inundated with signs and images of sandwiches. They dream of eating the ones pictured as well as constructing their own out of random bits of white, Polish, and Asian foods. However, as they arrive back home, it is revealed that all they have to eat is cereal, indicating their poverty. The story therefore underscores their inability to cross that line into enjoying what taunts them and what is so brazenly advertised to them in their everyday lives. The way that they dream of one day obtaining these sandwiches is symbolic of their desire to achieve wealth and success.

Similarly, in “The (R)evolution of Nigeria Jones,” the narrator, Geri, has always lived in the world of her father and the Movement. He has constructed for her a world that depicts people of color as universally oppressed and white people as universally oppressive. This traps Geri in a liminal space between what she hears from her father and the reality of the world around her. She longs to bridge that gap in order to attend college, meet different people, and exist outside the confines of her father’s control. Although her one-night escape to the city ultimately results in distress for her, as she loses her wallet and cannot pay for her food, it is nevertheless a strong first step in escaping her confined world and experiencing life for herself rather than living under the control of her father.

In sum, the short stories in the collection explore the idea of a gray area that exists between two worlds. Although the characters feel as though one world—typically that of wealth and largely white people—is inherently better than the other, they each come to the realization that this is not universally or unequivocally true. As Geri explains it, her “father’s ideas and words have created an invisible wall” (383). The influence of the characters’ parents, their social situations, and their own beliefs about what it means to be “Black” inhibit them from recognizing both the struggle and the value of people from the “other” world.

Importance of Support Systems

As the characters in the stories throughout the collection struggle with serious problems like sexual abuse, assault, bullying, and grief, they often suppress or ignore their feelings instead of appropriately handling them. However, they also discover the importance of finding support in others to handle their problems. As a result, they develop new relationships and take the first steps in handling complex circumstances through the help of others.

One place where the characters find support for their trauma is through family. In the story “Half a Moon,” the narrator Raven deals with feelings of anger and resentment toward her father leaving, directing them at a young girl, Brooke, who is her half-sister. As a result of this bitterness, she allows Brooke to be bullied and mistreated several times by the other campers. She knows that she should act in support of Brooke—both because of her job as a counselor and as her half-sister—but instead Raven allows her feelings of anger toward her dad to cause her not to act at all. However, when Brooke goes missing, Raven regrets her inaction and her refusal to stop Brooke’s mistreatment. This regret and fear cause a change in Raven, as she ultimately ends up bonding with Brooke and bringing her back to the camp, supporting Brooke’s story of her bravery to the other campers and allowing her to gain respect, while also realizing how much she has missed by not having a sister.

Similarly, Clara in the story “Gravity” finds support from her family. As she is dancing on the floor and is sexuality assaulted, she thinks of all the negative consequences of reporting her abuse or making a scene, consequences typically revolving around the gossip and the blame she would receive, even though she is a victim. However, when she finally returns to the ground and frees herself from her assaulter’s grasp, she finds support from her cousins instead of the gossip and blame she feared. As the man angrily stands up, calling her a “bitch” and challenging her, her cousins jump in, standing beside her and threatening the man. Clara receives both physical support—in the form of her cousins’ willingness to fight for her—as well as the emotional support that she needs to survive the traumatic experience of being sexually assaulted.

Additionally, the characters in the collection also find support in the form of unexpected people, forming bonds and friendship over mutual trauma. In the story “Stop Playing,” Keri experiences an emotionally abusive relationship at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Lucas. She dresses to impress Lucas and pines for his attention, even neglecting a potentially healthy relationship with Brandon because she does not want to hurt Lucas’s feelings. As Lucas tries to get her to send him nudes, using the word “love” and trying to convince her that the pictures are only for him, Keri is dangerously close to obliging after he ignores her and walks away from her. However, she is stopped at the last second by Lucas’s friend and Derrick’s girlfriend, Dara. Ironically, Keri had previously noted that she “can’t stand” Dara, and in fact her trouble with Lucas started because she had refused to room with Dara at the beach retreat (179). Now, however, as Dara reveals that Lucas and Derrick had tried to get nudes from her as well, the two bond in the bathroom over their mutual experience of abuse from the boys. This bond allows Keri to finally see Lucas as the emotionally abusive person that he is, ultimately leaving the retreat and deciding to do her best to pursue her relationship with Brandon.

Similarly, Lena in the story “The Trouble with Drowning” finds support through her sister’s boyfriend, James, who also battles with grief over the death of Madeleine. Throughout the story, Lena struggles with her sister’s suicide, often returning to the place that she died and thinking what it would be like to die herself. She becomes consumed throughout the text by the idea of drowning physically—so much so that she finds herself drowning emotionally. She imagines Madeleine’s presence, seeing her everywhere and even interacting with her; she starts to lash out against her parents, arguing with her mother instead of following her every command as she had previously done; she tries to get James to kiss her; and she regularly takes trips to the site of Madeleine’s death and into the city, flirting with strangers in return for cigarettes she does not even smoke. Her actions reveal her struggle with depression and grief, culminating in her trip to the bridge with James. However, in talking with James, she has the realization that James, too, is hurting from Madeleine’s death. The two ultimately bond over their shared grief and their struggle to survive without Madeleine, with Lena finding the support system that she needs to finally accept Madeleine’s death.

The teenagers in the collection deal with common human experiences like death, sexual assault, bullying, and emotional abuse—as well as their own internal feelings of depression and bitterness. As these thoughts cause them to make poor choices and threaten to consume them, they each find reprieve from the support of others. Whether it is friends, family, a former enemy, or even a sibling’s boyfriend, they discover the power of external support as they face life’s difficulties.