Further Reading: Lorene Cary.
For my “further reading” I read over an Interview with Lorene Cary. Before viewing this I always wanted to know how she viewed race as a barrier in schools, and how race affected how successful someone could be when they’re put into an unfamiliar environment. Another question I wanted to know was how did she feel about giving up her African American roots to fit in more at a predominately white school. Through this interview we find out a lot about Cary and why she still doesn’t seem to like St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.
One of Cary’s main reasons for writing “Black Ice” was to show the hardships faced by a scholar ship student during the time of integration. Cary states, “I also very much wanted to figure out how to explain to people who lived on either side of American extreme privilege what it looked like from the other side”. When she said privilege it still seems to me that she is hard on herself. Like the pot smoking incident or her failing math she always takes her anger out on herself. She says nothing about her earning her education at St. Paul’s and later UPenn, but calls it a privilege, which instantly gives less credit to herself.
Lorene Cary reminds me of another author who went through a similar experience. Back in high school we read a book titled “A Hope in the Unseen” by Cedric Jennings. Which is a true story about a young African American boy who grew up in the projects, similar to Cary in Philadelphia. He later went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Brown University and his Masters from Harvard. While he did not attend a private high school, I saw similar situations arising from him and Cary. Jennings’s was ridiculed for being so smart and that because his race would not succeed; this reminded me of Cary describing her emotions about how she wasn’t afraid but she new that white students thought she was.
A huge part of Cary’s writing seems to be the use of emotion and how it all plays into her life. When asked about becoming emotionally involved in her stories this is what she has to say, “You can’t write it without becoming involved. Emotion is the currency of fiction. Nonfiction can manipulate emotion but the currency of fiction is emotion”. This explains why we can almost sympathize with Cary in her book despite not going through what she did, or being there with her. Another emphasis is the fact that if you don’t put any emotion into your writing then the reader won’t feel any emotion either and it will be hard to keep them hooked.
While “Black Ice” focuses on racism in her time, she still continually shuts down myths that are commonly associated with race determining success in education. She explains a quote that she was once told, “You know, we’ve been sending these inner-city black children on this small scholarship to independent schools and it’s so hard and it’s mainly not doing well. We’re almost deciding that it’s not worth it, that we shouldn’t do it because it’s too bad for them”. Cary explains it all as a myth that is told to black children to make them think they can’t succeed. This quote reminds me somewhat of “This Boys Life” when Tobias is told what the workload would be like at his new school in attempt to deter him from coming.
I feel that Cary has done a good job in her autobiography of explaining how there’s a misconception of race versus status and how it affects one’s education. While reading this interview I could almost make out her voice as I can hear it in “Black Ice”. This interview was conducted 2 years ago and it seems that Cary has not changed since her writing of her autobiography. She is a very intellectual, emotional and descriptive person who is able to convey her thoughts and emotions through both her writing and a simple interview.
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/interviews/101509-1.html
