The Cruisers by Walter Dean Myers

Author:Walter Dean Myers [Dean Myers, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-34755-6
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2010-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

THE CRUISER

AN OPEN LETTER TO HATTIE MCDANIEL

FROM ZANDER SCOTT

Dear Miss McDaniel,

I am glad you won an Oscar for your role in Gone with the Wind but I wish that at least one time you had turned to the camera and said, “I am a slave.” I know that they would have probably cut that out of the movie or even have taken you out of the movie altogether. But the problem I’m having is that when you don’t name something you can’t deal with it unless everybody is agreeing to it.

Some people, a lot of people, really, think they can get away with putting people down just by changing the names they use. When somebody says that I’m from the inner city they are not talking about where I live, but they are saying that I’m part of an urban scene they really don’t respect. I have never heard anybody say, “Oh, he’s really cool because he lives in the inner city.”

My mother said that you weren’t running around acting stupid in the movie and that was good. But if you were somebody’s slave you should have said that, too. Then they could make up their mind if they liked the person who kept you in slavery. I guess you needed the money and it’s hard getting a good role in the movies. But from what I have heard about the movie just about everybody was let off the hook about who they really were.

None of this would matter if we weren’t dealing with race today. Some people, like Mr. Culpepper in our school, say that we are dealing with other issues. But if you see kids laughing and smirking and making little “jokes” like offering somebody up for sale (somebody who would punch him out!), you would know better.

Your friend,

Zander

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