Brian is an African American teenager who shares his frustration with the required text of his high school. When asked to reflect on the connection that he has with these men of color he doesn’t see the connection. He begins to question why all of the black men they study died horrible deaths. Why they aren’t allowed to say the “n” word in school but the books they read have it plastered all over it. Why there are no black men that they study that weren’t massacred for having a voice and using it. Why he doesn’t get to read about black men like his father who is present, working, a positive role model for him and his friends, but he is not in the books, plays, history books or required reading. The positive things that his father does for him and with him, the time they spend together, the things he teaches him about being a man, and the love that he gives from a living, breathing, African American man. It is a powerful, personal and heartfelt conversation that he has with the audience and a reflection on what young black boys see and how some of them feel. How he responds to his white classmates that are surprised by his father’s presence in his live, it saddens him, but he knows the ignorance they speak is in response to the reality that the world has set on the African American father. Brian’s story is one that needs to be heard so that he can be validated in the world he is living in and the social norms that he is fighting daily.
