He enters the conversation angry and threatens to have his father call Bras Prep to get Doc fired from the school. Prior to this moment, Jared has insisted that inequality no longer exists in the United States. In this passage, Jus is overhearing Manny and his friends talk about the class discussion from Doc's class in the previous chapter. Jared: Remember, bro? I had to memorize that shit for our eighth-grade Heritage Play.īlake: That's right! Token black guy over here got sick or something, right? Chapter 4, page 32 Manny: That's from the I Have a Dream speech, T. Jared: Right here, right now, on these red hills of Georgia, a son of former slaves and sons of former slave owners are sitting down at the table of brotherhood, dude. He is subject to the abuses of an unjust and racist society, something he never really had to think about before Officer Castillo so easily took his rights away in the previous chapter. However, unlike the world of video games, in real life Jus has no control over his own outcome. At this moment in the novel, Jus is coming to the realization that violence is not just the stuff of video games-it is all around him. That night, his fate could have easily been like that of Shemar Carson, a seventeen-year-old Black boy from Nevada who was shot by a white police officer earlier that year. For Jus, the violence within the fantasy world of the video game has become all too real as he realizes that he is not exempt from having to face it. Jus knows that he very easily could have been shot by Officer Castillo, who kept his hand on his gun at all times.

It reminds him too much of the violence he faced when Officer Castillo arrested him. In this passage, Jus is put on edge by the violent video game that he is playing with Manny.

One wrong move, and Jus might've been the next Shemar Carson.

Just like the one Castillo kept his hand on while treating Jus like a criminal.

Dear martin and dear justyce