Saeed Jones Talk Write-Back

         Being Black can get you killed,

        Being Gay can get you killed,

But being a Black, Gay Boy is a death wish.

-Saeed Jones

When I ended the sentence, I came up with a sentence instead of a wish. It is the same thing, but what is getting me is that I could finish his sentence, even though, I have never experienced what Saeed went through. That is what’s sticking to me, even though the weekend after the talk. I don’t know how, but I just knew what he was going to say next because, in some way or another, I knew it was true for him. 

When asked by Dr. Ragland about ‘How he coped with knowing that knowledge,’ he first talked about suppression and how boys were taught to ‘lie’ about who they are and that it makes it stressful, repulsive, and even painful to suppress the feelings they had. He also mentioned how knowing this had made him hyperaware of others who are not. He had given some solutions as to how he coped with this, like how acknowledging these feelings can help but putting them in the productive, creative way you want. Saeed put those feelings into writing, but anyone else can put them into singing, painting, acting, cooking, etc. 

I only stayed at the talk for 30 minutes, but that talk gave me more to think about and more to write about. The reading he did first was really intriguing. He gave it more emotion than just reading it in my head or having someone else read it. I guess he gave it more character. I definitely align more with the prologue of the reading, about Prince, because my mom is a huge fan of Prince and I think she would’ve felt the same with his mother’s feelings about Prince. The talk was good.