“Black Holes and Basketball Sneakers” in 13 by James Howe

Malik represents countless adolescents excluded by race, social class, and gender.  Malik, a black boy, son of a hard-working, minimum wage mother, brother to several siblings.  Malik, wearing worn out, unpopular sneakers.  Malik, who is beaten up and bullied for breathing.  “They would follow him just a baby step from his apartment if they had to, follow him and make his life miserable.” (p.115)  The bullies put down Malik because of his tattered clothes and signs of poverty.  The bullies take advantage of Malik’s passive demeanor, mocking his mother’s lack of resources.  “I-I-I don’t want to fight you,” Malik said, shaking violently.  “Just lay off of my mama.” (p.119)  These boys are of the same race, but demonstrate a sense of entitlement.  Perhaps the rankings in this neighborhood outweigh the boundaries of race and class. 

The repeated encounter with bullies send Malik over the edge.  He wants his life to be different.  Malik lost the plea with his mom to buy JC Jumpers, the latest sneaker fad.  In a desperate attempt to fit in, Malik accepts Carl’s invitation to meet up with his friends, commonly known as the Bullets.  Malik’s predicament leads him to find another group of friends to serve as protection.  Unbeknownst to him, Malik was walking in stride with the local gang.  Suddenly, instead of feeling isolated, Malik felt included.  “The boys weren’t frontin’.  They knew what it felt like to have to do without.  They had literally walked in the same raggedy sneakers as him.” (p.137)  Bullet members, T-Bone and Carl, take extreme and violent measures to collect Malik’s desired sneakers.  His conscience set in as the other boys beat up an innocent basketball player in exchange for the sneakers intended for Malik.  His desire to be respected and protected gave way to desperate measures.  Malik’s desire for survival lead to the stripping of dignity of another.  The basketball player was no different than his attackers, a black male in a low-income neighborhood, trying to make a name for himself. “The truth was, he was just like Orlando.  He had his mother’s last name, and he hadn’t seen his old man since he was nine.” (p.143)  Fear prevented Malik from intervening during the attack.  He may have shared the social class as these boys, but his “rank” was far beneath their power.  Even though Malik knew the boys were wrong, part of him still coveted those shoes.  “Malik felt scared and upset with himself about that, but what really botherd him was that a tiny part of him was beginning to think that maybe he should have taken the shoes.” (p.155)

Extreme desperation is evident throughout the piece.  The low socioeconomic class is portrayed in a negative light that leads to more violence and more depravity.  Malik’s desire to fit in is human and represents the reality of all adolescents, not just black males in poverty.  His needs and wants are so extremely different from his reality that it takes extreme acts to fulfill those desires.  If Malik were to resist the temptation to have the right shoes and wear the right clothes, he would have to defend himself through another avenue.  Unfortunately, the hate does not seem to disappear.  There are no easy answers for a complex problem.  If anything, education may allow Malik an escape out of the cyclical pattern of hatred, anger, and desperation.