DJ's Somewhat of a Blog







This is my first time ever making a blog so please forgive me and I apologize for any cringing of any sort you may experience. In "Bad Boy", a young, African-American boy is growing up in Harlem and faces a whole lot of struggles. Now, even though I was born in Cleveland but raised in Durham, I do relate to the struggles of growing up, especially as a boy and even an African-American boy. The book takes place decades ago, so of course things are vastly different from then to today. In the story, Water is mocked by kids, due to the way he talks and also due to the fact that he wasn't a quick, easy learner. Walter's problem are problems that I've faced many times in the past. My family is from the West Indies (near Puerto Rico), meaning that they had thick, strong, hard-to-understand accents. Some graduated and moved to the States while others stayed where they lived. Americans would sometimes mock and even imitate their accents, humiliating them. Even I, though I don't have an accent, use to get bullied and harassed in elementary school (which was predominantly white) just for being black. Instead of listening to current day radio, I listened to Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Logic and I'd listen to 90's, 80's and even 70's music because that's how I was raised but the kids still thought/think that I'm weird. But I didn't care because people are raised differently and I was raised around old school music and that's how it is for me. Being "different" to others was something Walter and I can relate to.