Fires In The Mirror

This white woman is in her mid-thirties, wearing a wig and loose-fitting clothes. She is surrounded by several children, and her girls help her with the housework. She finds amusement in the confusion of the young black boy who turns off her family’s radio on Shabbas: “and we laughed that he probably thought: / And people say Jewish people are really smart and they don’t know / how to turn off radios” (8). She understands perceptions of communal identity and can find humor in the misunderstanding therein. She does not attempt to explain to the young boy the situation; rather, she is satisfied at and even finds humor in his misperception. 

Wolfe is a black male playwright who is dressed almost exclusively in denim with the exception of his white tennis shoes. He has an easy confidence, noticed in the fact that he puts his feet on the coffee table as he speaks. He has his hair in a ponytail and wears glasses while he drinks tea. Wolfe speaks about his blackness, specifically the fact that other people construct his blackness in relationship to whiteness: “I was extraordinary as long as I was Black. / But I am not—not—going—to place myself / in relationship to your whiteness” (10). Wolfe implies that his personal identity is affected by the positionality of both his own communal identity and the communal identity of others, despite the fact that he resists this categorization. 

Bernstein is a fifty-year-old physicist at MIT who wears a sweater and shirt with a pen guard. He speaks about the distortions in scientific and literary mirrors, although he defines literary reflections as “not a real mirror, / as everyone knows” (13). Because he is ingrained within academia, he has a certain expectation of communal understanding; that is, he expects people to understand what he is talking about because they have had a similar education to him. He is unable to conceptualize that people may not know what he is speaking about, but rather expects to be understood.

This girl is a black teenager of Haitian descent who attends junior high in Brooklyn. Her hair is straightened, and she wears a blue jumper and white shirt. She talks about how she knew she was black after looking in the mirror and at the faces of her parents. However, she cannot tell if Smith is black by looking at her. She believes: “Black is beautiful…. I think White is beautiful too” (16). She places importance on appearance and beauty, even in the abstract notions of racial identity by qualifying both as beautiful.

Sharpton is a political celebrity and New York activist/minister. He wears a suit with a colorful tie, a medallion given to him by MLK, Jr., and a pinky ring. His voice fills the space of the small room, and he speaks very directly. He views James Brown as a surrogate father because his own father was absent. He is unapologetic in many aspects, especially regarding his hair, which is worn in the style of James Brown: “I really don’t give a damn / who doesn’t understand it” (21). He questions the actions of Lifsh as well as the intentions of those who helped him run. He is offended when people say that he is trying to grandstand, as he believes in his own moral superiority. He is similarly offended when the media claims that his speeches led to Rosenbaum getting stabbed, as he didn’t arrive until after the fact. He believes wholeheartedly in the importance of his direct attitude: “If you piss in my face I’m gonna call it piss. / I’m not gonna call it rain” (116). He is confrontational, but not in a way that seems to be uncalled for. 

Siegal is a pretty Lubavitcher woman with a direct gaze. She wears many wigs and has grown uncomfortable with the thought that wearing wigs feels fake: “I feel like it’s not me. / I try to be as much myself as I can, / and it just / bothers me / that I’m kind of fooling the world” (25). Siegal feels torn between her personal and her communal identity. On the one hand, she describes always wanting to be married so that she could wear wigs; however, now that she has been married and worn wigs for some time, she feels insincere in her continuation of this tradition. She feels that this adherence to communal identity stifles what she feels like is her personal identity, causing distinct cognitive dissonance that can be felt throughout her interview. 

Davis is a black author, activist, and scholar who, at the time, was in her forties. She was jailed in the seventies for her association with the Black Panther Party and was the face of black female resistance to white governmental oppression. At the time of this interview, she works as a UC-Santa Cruz professor. She is incredibly brilliant and possesses the unique ability to incisively yet calmly critique social systems of oppression. She speaks of her time as a ‘race woman’ in the 1970s, during which any politically-inclined black man or woman felt like they had to unilaterally support the actions of any other black person. Now, however, she sees that some of the actions of black people, especially those within the purview of the public, work to reproduce systems of oppression that she fights against, such as Clarence Thomas and Mike Tyson. She talks about how the history of race stemmed from racism, not the other way around, advising that “if we don’t transform / this … this intransigent / rigid / notion of race, / we will be caught up in this cycle / of genocidal / violence / that, um, / is at the origins of our history” (31). She believes that a new construct of race and identity that is dynamic and allows the individual to move amidst identities must be attained in order to supersede this cycle of racial violence. 

Matthews is a student Smith interviewed when Smith was a fellow at UCLA. Matthews is a black female rapper who speaks theatrically. She talks to Smith about the positionality of women within the world of rap, saying that many use objectification to sell their music. She thinks that much of this is due to the rampant objectification of women within rap, and she wants her rap to be different, even though a lot of people tell her that they don’t like how she’s anti-male. However, she says, “‘It ain’t men bashin’, it’s female assertin’” (37). She thinks that most male rappers are highly disrespectful towards women, and she wants to change that game within the rap world. 

Jeffries is a black professor of African-American Studies at CUNY. He was head of the department, but then was removed after accusing Jewish businessmen of financing slavery and using the movie industry to denigrate black people. In the interview, Jeffries speaks to his relationship with the writer of Roots and the problems he had with the television show, especially how he feels it was used to finance Jewish history “as opposed to Blackhistory” (43). He feels like he has been a martyr for his beliefs, and that the mass media has labeled him as a conspiracy theorist. He also shows evidence of a kind of messiah-complex: “Cause after they destroyed me, / here he is resurrected!!!!! / I spoke at Columbia, I spoke at Queens College” (49). Jeffries comes across as incredibly arrogant and does not seem to believe that he can be stopped. 

Pogrebin is a fifty-year-old white author of Jewish descent and the founding editor of Ms. Magazine, a liberal American magazine by second-wave feminists. She wrote a book about her mother’s cousin, Isaac, who was the sole survivor of his village during the Holocaust. Because he looked Aryan, Isaac was charged by the elders to tell the story by whatever means necessary, even shoving his family into the gas chambers. Eventually, he came the America, told the story many times, and died. Even as Pogrebin reads from her book, she says that she worries about people overusing Holocaust stories. She also speaks of how both blacks and Jews have been used as scapegoats throughout history, and says that “we all play into” (51) the tension that the media has created between these two identities. 

Mohammed is a black minister of New York for the Honorable Louis Farrakhan and is thereby associated with the Nation of Islam, although he later becomes a Baptist. He is very well-dressed, in a designer suit and shoes, for the interview. He blames Caucasian people for robbing the black man of his humanity by stealing his identity, specifically identifying the stealing of their names and their knowledge as “one of the greatest crimes / ever committed on the face of this earth” (57). He believes that blacks are the chosen people of God. 

Sherman wears sweatpants and a t-shirt and is very comfortable speaking. He talks about how the Hasidim are a minority in the Crown Heights neighborhood; the tension that exists between the Hasidim and the predominantly Afro-Caribbean community is a result of bias and discrimination that no one seems to have the right words for. He believes this inability to speak about bias and discrimination is a reflection of American society’s inability to be honest.

The rabbi is a spokesperson in the Lubavitch community and wears the traditional Hasidic garb of a religious leader. He defends Lifsh’s actions, saying that Lifsh was beaten when he tried to rescue the children. He stresses that the ambulances are funded entirely by the Jewish community, not the government. He believes that the greater injustice is Rosenbaum’s death, which was done with malice, as opposed to the accidental death of a child. He is very authoritative in this regard, feeling that his community has been slighted by the inaction of many people, including the police, mayor, and doctors. There seems to be no doubt in his mind as to his moral superiority, and everything that he says is depicted as evidence of truth.

Sam is a black pastor at St. Mark’s Church in Crown Heights. His office is modest but very well-ordered, which Smith believes to be a reflection of the man himself. Sam mocks the need of the Grand Rebbe to be “whisked” (75) away to safety, believing it was a matter of time before someone got hurt. He frames the murder of Rosenbaum and the ensuing riots as retaliation, stressing the inevitability of violence. 

#1 is a resident of Crown Heights and“[a] very handsome young Caribbean American man with dreadlocks, in his late teens or early twenties, wearing a bright, loose-fitting shirt” (79). He talks about being incredibly angry and frustrated as the scene unfolded, and wholeheartedly believes that Lifsh was drunk. #1 is very vocal and repeatedly tries to get people to do something, which seems to have something to do with him eventually getting arrested. He is incredibly cynical, believing that there is not nor will there ever be justice in his community. 

Miller is a Jewish man who is a public figure within the Lubavitcher community. He is upset because he feels as though the Jewish community has expressed appropriate sympathy for Gavin’s death, but that sympathy was not reciprocated for Rosenbaum. He feels that politics are seeping into personal affairs: “Frankly this was a political rally rather than a funeral” (85). Most importantly, he is angered by the anti-Semitic comments he has heard and how politically correct he feels he must be. 

Rice is a neatly dressed “good-natured, handsome, healthy” (88) black Crown Heights resident who drove around with Richard Green to stop area youth from getting arrested. He feels responsibility towards the younger black residents of Crown Heights, which he designates as resulting from Green’s way with words. Originally, he seemed reticent to get involved but once he did is surprised that the cops attack him when he is advocating nonviolence. He understands why the black youth are angry. 

Norman is the brother of the murdered Yankel Rosenbaum. Both are Australian, and Norman has a wife and children who live with him in Australia. He is a very passionate speaker and says his brother was killed for being Jewish. He remembers being very surprised to learn of his brother’s death, although he “appeared all cool, calm and collected” (98).

Young Man #2 is a black, young Crown Heights resident who hangs around while #1 is talking, hovering in the shadows. He is much quieter, “has a direct gaze [and] seems to be very patient with his explanation” (100). In comparison to #1’s explosive semi-rant, #2 calmly explains the difference between a bad boy and an athlete. He argues that Nelson was an athlete and wouldn’t jeopardize this to stab Rosenbaum. He knows this because he used to be an athlete but is now a bad boy. There is some indication that he either knows who stabbed Rosenbaum or stabbed Rosenbaum himself.

Carson is a black activist and community organizer. He has a contentious relationship with the police, who he feels “turned that whole place into an occupied camp with the Seventy-First Precinct as the overseers” (103). His goal seems to be to expose America to the plight of the black community and the continued racism faced by the black community. He has a lot of respect for the youth and does not believe that unity can heal America.

Hecht is a middle-aged Lubavitcher rabbi and spokesperson for the Lubavitcher community. He does not think that understanding leads to respect in terms of unifying people from diverse identities. He repeatedly parrots the words of the Rebbe to explain why he does not interact with people outside of his community. 

Green works with the Crown Heights Youth Collective and Project CURE, a black-Hasidic basketball team. He is, as Rice points out, very good with words and is a convincing speaker, especially when he tries to communicate the feelings of the black youth regarding the incidents and their community in general. He believes that their rage can be pointed at anyone: “they’re just as angry at you and me, / if it comes to that” (119). He believes that this kind of explosion in tension is unavoidable, implying that the tension itself needs to be addressed in order to prevent further violence. He is very empathetic with the youth, believing that they have no role models and don’t understand their hate speech or actions.

Malamud is a very well put-together Lubavitcher resident of Crown Heights with several grown children. Smith might be the first black person who has ever entered Malamud’s home. She is definitely disconnected from much of the Crown Heights community because she believes that all of the unrest was a result of outsiders. She cannot possibly fathom why people would resort to violence in protest and does not understand the ramifications of systemic racism, most likely believing that racism ended with desegregation. She believes that black activists and political celebrities, such as Sharpton, are also exploiting this tragedy and creating the tension to generate money. She does not believe there was tension to begin with, but that it only happened after the fact. 

Ostrov is a Lubavitcher youth and member of Green’s CURE, working as an assistant chaplain at Kings County Hospital during the riots. He is horrified that a Jewish woman had an autopsy done and is clearly very shaken up at the fact that this woman survived Russia to commit suicide after the riots started. He accuses Carson and Sharpton of coming “down / [to] start making pogroms” (132). However, there is no indication that he actually knows the horrific implications of this word, but rather that he says it with a kind of youthful flippancy as there is no further explanation of this.