Blanche Cleans Up by Barbara Neely

Author:Barbara Neely [Neely, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brash Books, LLC
Published: 2015-03-31T06:00:00+00:00

All three children had heard the news by the time they got home, and Miz Barker was the main topic at dinner.

“I hope I don’t know him,” Shaquita said, looking worried.

“Why it got to be somebody from around here?” Malik challenged Shaquita.

“Boy! You got to be kidding!” Taifa said. “Of course he’s from round here. You heard what they said. He had on a Bulls jacket, dark green jeans, Air Jordans, and a black cap. You think somebody come in here from out in Randolph or someplace, dressed like the Germantown Street gang to give Miz Barker a heart attack?” Taifa laughed.

Malik’s lower lip jutted out. He leaned across the table toward his sister. “You think guys from the suburbs don’t kill people? You sound just like those white people on TV, always calling us names, accusing us of every…It’s stupid. Stupid!” Malik’s palm slapped the table so hard, his juice jumped over the side of his glass.

Blanche suddenly understood why Malik was so hot for Aminata’s lead poisoning–teen violence idea. He wants a reason for kids killing kids, she thought, a reason that says it’s not something in all black teenage boys’ blood, that violence isn’t natural to them. How could she not have realized that what kids were doing in the streets was even scarier for Malik than it was for her?

“No matter what they say on TV we all know there are a lot fewer kids who get in trouble than there are decent teens out here,” she said.

Malik looked at her as though he wanted to believe her but couldn’t. Blanche wished some of those so-called experts on black teen males who say it’s up to parents to keep kids out of trouble could feel the pain in Malik’s voice and on his face. They needed to know firsthand how it felt to be treated like the white world’s worst enemy. How was she supposed to overcome that?

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