Last month, my fellow peers and I were invited to see a show called MEMPHIS. It was based on segregation events in the 1950's between black and white people. The main characters in the play were a white young man by the name of Huey, and a beautiful black woman by the name of Felicia.
In the play, there was a scene that I didn't like at all. It was when Huey and Felicia were walking in the park together, and a group of white males walked in on them. They started to harass them and beat them into a pulp. Because of this conflict, Felicia can't have any kids. The reason why they were beat up was because they were different colors. When I saw that part, it reminded me when my friends and I were walking in the park one night and a group of 15 black males approached us and started to beat us up for no apparent reason. I was so aggravated that night because there was nothing we could do about the situation because we didn't know who they were.
I really understood what Huey and Felicia went through in the story because of my experience with the prejudiced moment that my friends and I had. I say it was a prejudiced moment for me because I have experienced fights with black males for the simple reason that I am a Latino person. When I went to the cafeteria in school, we always were separated from the blacks. They had half the cafeteria to themselves and so did we. When school was over, we had to stay united, because they would be grouped up waiting for us out side and seeking the moment to attack us. That's why police officers used to surround the school and trains because of the conflict that always occurred after or during school time.
In conclusion, the play taught me not to judge any one for their race or who they were. The play taught this to me by showing what sort of problems that blacks went through, without doing anything wrong. By seeing it from a third person point of view, it seemed very shallow how the whites treated the blacks.
I recommend this show because it is a part of history we people should know about, so we could see how some people suffer in the world and how the human spirit could still survive.
Johanny, Stanley Isaacs Center, GED +
Fabulous photo and a powerful, moving story. THANKS!
I'm sorry that kind of stuff is going on at your school Johanny. Since Obama got elected, it's funny to me when people use that as proof we're in a post-racial society. Nice dream, but not yet.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience and insights from the show - it's the best when something from a play or a movie or song or any art reveals something about your own life. I love when that happens to me.