Impact on Stevie's Life

In the book Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair there is one of the many issues of discovering sexuality. In this book Stevie is confronted with the stigma of same sex attraction and the problems it could cause.

In Chapter 8 there is an incident between Carla, Stevie, and Willie Jean. Carla tells Stevie about Willie Jean and describes her as a flat-chested, tomboyish girl who likes to play basketball had moved from Mississippi. The reason Carla tells Stevie about Willie Jean is just to tell her that Willie Jeans’s behavior is not acceptable. So Carla tells Stevie to be careful and not end up like Willie Jean because no boy is going to want a girl with muscles and is not feminine. I think that at this point Stevie doesn’t really care about Carla had to say to her about no one wanting her if she acts like a tomboy. Stevie stands up for herself and tells Carla that someone will always want her.

In chapter 9 there is another incident in which Yusef Brown starts walking Stevie home and in one of the days that he walks her home they have a conversation regarding Stevie playing basketball. He responds by saying that there’s no reason for a girl to play basketball and instead can go out with a basketball player and wear his jacket and not worry about breaking her nails. She is basically pressured into liking cheerleading instead and acting like a lady. She forgets who she is and what she likes just to be accepted. She thought that if one wanted to have a boyfriend you had to go along with certain things even if you didn’t want to.

These topics and incidents that occurred in chapters 8 and 9 deal in some way with the stigma of being a lesbian and/or being attracted to the same sex. It is clear that during Stevie’s time it was considered a taboo. It couldn’t even be mentioned up because it would be a disgrace and shameful in everyone’s eyes.

The Party

In "The Mee Street Chronicles"by Frankie Lennon, the author tells us a story in “The Party” about an incident in her life. The author goes to a party with a friend named Pepper and a situation starts to unravel. The narrator didn’t want to be asked to dance, especially by a boy named Bobby. She was too nervous that she even thought of a couple excuses in case he would ask her to dance but Pepper had to intrude and ask why she and Bobby hadn’t danced yet, and Bobby responded saying that he hasn’t asked her yet. But while everyone was distracted with watching Pepper and her boyfriend, Jeffrey, kiss the narrator sneaked off to the kitchen hoping no one would know where she was. To her dismay Bobby walked into the kitchen and that’s when she was confronted. Bobby tried to kiss Frankie but she backed off and Bobby told her she was real uptight and acted funny, as if she didn’t like boys. So the author doesn’t know what to do so she starts crying and gets scared that Bobby would go back out to the party and tell everyone about her.

I really like the whole story in itself. I really enjoyed reading the part when the author thought of excuses to give in case Bobby would ask her to dance. I can relate because that’s something I would do. I also liked when the author mentioned that she was angry at the fact that Pepper was “hooking” her up with someone she doesn’t know. I know how it feels having someone imposed on you that you don’t even know. To me that is just plain weird and uncomfortable.

As I read this story I came across new terms/vocabulary words I didn’t know the meaning of such as speculatively and auburn. The word speculatively means forming conclusions, hypothetically. “He looked at me speculatively, his eyes sliding down from my face to my chest.” The word auburn means reddish-brown or ginger.” She was yella, like me, with thick, auburn hair.”

The situation that the author went through has happened or can easily happen to any of us. It’s true it can happen to anyone. I think that it is important that author mentioned that the only reason she was at that part was because she wanted to fit in and be included that way no one would what was going on with her. It’s important because it’s something that maybe we all can relate to. We want to fit in, be popular, and be liked even though that means belonging to crowds we don’t have a place in. We just want to hide what we are feeling and go along with everyone else. We don’t want to get left behind.