Peace undoubtedly straddled two completely different worlds. On one side existed a world full of privilege and passage to upward social mobility that a minute percentage of the population has access to (the world of Yale), on the other side existed a world in which violence and darkness claims it's inhabitants, sentencing many of them to early graves(the world of the streets). The fact that the duality of these two worlds existed harmoniously within Peace captivates all that follow his story, but that captivation gives way to sadness when one considers how his intellect and charisma could have impacted the world in a positive way.
His story is complicated, one that can't be summed with racial stereotypes or the struggles of poverty. His intelligence and grit led him to one of the most elite universities in the world while at the same time allowing him to form a very lucrative criminal enterprise. He lived his life on both ends of the spectrum and yet found a way not to be summed up by either side. His struggle was one that many young black men can relate to who grow up in poverty and in a single parent home and he struggled in a deeper as he tried to reconcile all of both of these worlds within himself. Anand Giridharadas of the New York Times made this very poignant statement about the message that Peace's life sends:
"It will force liberals to reconsider their aversion to talking about culture, habits, values and family breakdown as contributors to poverty. Poverty may be “structural,” as liberals like to say, but the structures worked for Peace, and still there was a brokenness to his spirit, “crippling emotional trauma” from the absence of his imprisoned father, and a rage of generations — a rage that cannot be explained by the physics of one life alone...
Conservatives will love that a religious school and a rich banker were Peace’s principal rescuers, but Hobbs’s reporting shows us that Peace was the beneficiary of happy accidents, and that free markets and charity will never, on their own, solve a problem this dense, complex and knotted."When asked why he wanted to figure out what Robert Peace's life, Jeff Hobbes responded:
"That's an important question. I was brushing my teeth next to my wife when I learned he had died violently and pointlessly a mile from where he'd grown up. And the funeral — 400 people — [was] very painful, also beautiful — people from all over the world in downtown Newark. But, outside that church, it seemed like a lot of people were almost eagerly condemning him as this cliche of potential squandered.
We were there; it was sort of a reunion aspect to it with mutual friends. We just knew Rob Peace was not a cliche. We write about what conflicts us, whatever medium. And nothing's ever conflicted me more than this loss."
Sources:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/books/review/the-short-and-tragic-life-of-robert-peace-by-jeff-hobbs.html?_r=0
-http://www.npr.org/2014/09/23/350577398/remembering-the-short-and-tragic-life-of-robert-peace
-The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
-http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-short-and-tragic-life-of-robert-peace-by-jeff-hobbs/2014/09/26/5c7a5436-2700-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html
it may be crazy to think about but because of the media and rap music, i think that being a drug dealer and living in the streets is cool and exciting to the youth of our generation. Music makes it seem like it is so much better than it really is. IT makes the youth think that it is okay to be on the streets and commit crimes. It really is sad but that is the world we live in today.
ReplyDeleteI agree, because of the influence that today's music has on our generation, more and more young adults are partaking in things that are frowned upon because it's "cool."
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