The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America

D. Watkins is a powerful American voice, and it feels like a gift that he's willing to share his perspective.The Beast Side is a collection of loosely-connected essays that offers Watkins' take on race, class, poverty, and education in this country. He has a unique eye; born and raised in East Baltimore, he grew up poor but happy until he saw his first murder as a young child. Smart, wise, willing to fight but unwilling to kill, Watkins went to college, only to drop out within months when it failed to enlighten, inspire, and challenge him. He turned to selling drugs, made all kinds of money, changed, saw more friends die, and miraculously, managed to get out of the game (read his riveting  The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir  to learn more about this). And now he's back in his neighborhood, barely scraping by as an adjunct professor, doing everything he can to hold his neighborhood together and promote literacy while sharing what life is really like for the denizens of Bodymore, Murderland.Listen to him. Watkins is incapable of dishonesty, and essay after essay is filled with difficult, fascinating, disturbing truths. You'll learn just how hard everybody works in the 'hood, shattering stereotypes of lazy poor folks and "welfare queens." You'll learn how deeply the system is rigged, making it all but impossible for black men and women to escape poverty. You'll learn of the lack of dietary options in black neighborhoods that lead people to ingest the simple carbs, sugars, and saturated fats that lead to so many health problems. You'll learn about the stress of surviving in a world where shootings are common, violence goes down everywhere, and basic pop culture knowledge is a luxury out of reach for most. You'll learn how the school system discourages black kids from reading by refusing to assign books relevant to their lives - and you'll understand why literacy is what these kids, and adults, really crave. You'll learn.And most importantly, you'll learn why relations between black people and the police are so bad in poorer neighborhoods. Watkins, like all non-white denizens of the poorer sections Baltimore, has seen police physically and verbally abuse innocent people. He's seen them take bribes (often, his bribes) and place bets on popular "junkie fights" between husbands and wives. He's had his face slammed against cars and the sidewalk. He's had guns drawn on him for entering his own house. And he learned at a very young age never to call them. You don't have to agree with Watkins' view, but if you're listening, you'll understand how his experiences with police have led to resentment and distrust - and you'll realize he's far from alone.I hope I haven't made The Beast Side sound pedantic or preachy. It's entertaining as hell, propelled with vivid language and sharp, smart detail. Watkins is a strong, clear writer, but he's unafraid to use heightened, even poetic language when called for. He injects energy, color and humor into everything he documents, bringing street scenes, college basketball games, and poker games to vivid life. Really, the only fault with The Beast Side is its brevity, and that's the fault of the publisher, who claims from the start he's keeping this series of books to under 150 pages. So as soon as you read the last word in The Beast Side, you'll jump online, hoping he's published a new essay or two. Yes, there is hope in these pages, if you know how to look for it.

The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America by D. Watkins is an outstanding collection of essays that speaks upon the current climate of our American society while also providing vivid observations and insights to how we wound up where we are. Watkins' writing is prolific as he effortlessly moves in between the first person, chronicling bits and pieces of his formative years and those closest to him while also keeping a perspective that articulates the many issues of black civilians. From reading, it is apparent that the author, (born and raised in Baltimore's east side) is passionate about his environment and the city in general. Some of the topics Watkins touches upon are the Public Education System, Systemic Racism, Government Policy, Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, Poverty, Drug Dealing, Gentrification, White Supremacy and the 08' Obama Campaign that promised change for all in America. What really makes this a compelling read, is Watkins' balance to speak a language that every and anyone who picks up the book can understand. As a result, anyone looking to delve into it will really feel apart of it and the many lessons that he as a writer and educator teaches due to accessibility through language. At the end of Chapter 8, "My City Is Gone" Watkins sits with privileged business folks (white men) on how to bring about a bigger and better Baltimore, one that speaks to a town of their liking and he responds by saying that his city is gone and that he no longer knows if it exists. The chapter closes with, "A wiry kid ran up to my window waving a squeegee stick just like my friends and I used to do back in the day. I rejected the wash, gave him $5 and said, "Ay Shorty, keep pushing, this will all make sense some day." He thanked me and nodded in agreement. I wasn't sure if I was talking to him or myself" (Watkins 63). Watkins expresses how we as American minorities have been feeling from the moment we arrived in the New World via slave ships. Maybe it will make sense, we just have to keep pushing to find out for ourselves.

I am an educator who has spent ten years in one of the "tier three" Baltimore County Schools, one where test scores are low, over half of our students are on free & reduced lunch, many kids have "claimed" gang membership, and a fair share of city kids attend everyday via the MTA & someone's county address. I love my job and I wouldn't trade it for almost anything. I have a slew of students and athletes who are truly my babies. Some I love more than their own parents do, because I'm in a position to indulge such positive emotions...I'm white and gainfully employed with a relatively stable extended family. D.'s story is my students' story; he describes the home I've known for most of my adult life, and the dangers that lurk mere miles from my home on the edge of NE Baltimore. I know fear, I'm a woman who has been victimized, but I do not know a fear so deep that I worry everyday could be my last. D. paints that fear in a cynical voice of frustration, that of a man deeply desirous of change. I read The Beast Side quickly, even with my limited time and I have to say it's the best, most real, and most disheartening tale (or series of tales) I've read in a long time. He makes me hope my babies can live a life more like his now than his then, because I can't bear the thought of things getting any harder for them.

It's a fast read that gives insight into one black man's life and what black men and women face every day in regard to systemic racism. It's humorous when he tells stories about growing up and the way he tells them makes me feel like I'm there. Very detailed. Also educational, when discussing US history, and when discussing societal issues. I definitely recommend this book.

Good story line. Keeps your attention. Good read.

boring read