This short story brought lots of themes to my mind, including police brutality, Afrofuturism, disruption of space, and the concept of the personal as political. In Kara Keeling’s Intro chapter, she talks about Afrofuturism as an area of “critical inquiry and cultural production.” She discusses the four elements that come with it, being imagination, technology, future, and liberation. I think some of these elements can be seen in “The City Born Great” as it is projecting the concept of imagination in a political way.
In terms of police brutality, the systemic attitudes or beliefs towards the police can be seen through this story, “Or maybe those are the rumblers of police sirens? Nothing I like the sound of, either way.” The imminent fear that the police projects as a unit is apparent through this line and especially in the scene where the protagonist is running from what he perceives to be the cops, but it is unclear. I think it’s more than just bringing up the issue of police brutality, but also shining a light on the power structures that favor certain groups. Jemisin is highlighting the way a black male can live in a city in constant fear that he will be hurt, killed, or threatened. This also reminded me of the class where we talked about When They See Us and how the case stirred up feelings the general public already had about black people, which resulted in the media framing of the Exonerated 5’s case.
In discussing the personal as political in the story, the protagonist talks about his style, “the holes in my clothes aren’t the fashionable kind.” This reminded me of Madison Moore and how he talked about style being political and a reaction to oppression. Even if the protagonist literally didn’t have any other clothes, her is still undoing himself from the systematic structures by taking his expression out into public space for the world to see.
I talked to Ryan Keep about his take on the short story. He talked about the concept of “breathing” and how the narrator uses breathing and graffiti art as a metaphor to be able to express himself. As a graffiti artist, the protagonist preferred the nighttime because he connected with the city more. He attempted to disidentify with being an artist in the daytime, while also trying not to attract attention in the day. Ryan’s interpretation and mine differed in many aspects as he did more of a close reading and I focused on central concepts I took from the story. I really liked his reading of the story as he connected it to Jose Muñoz, which we all seem to resonate with.