Erin Hanlon’s Reviews > Men We Reaped: A Memoir > Status Update

Jesmyn message calls for recognization. Although the systematic cycles she writes about are complicated and grueling, the message comes down to recognizing the human in each individual.

Double consciousness.

“How could I know then that this would be my life: yearning to leave the South and doing so again and again, but perpetually called back to home by a love so thick it choked me?”

“We dream of speaking when we lack the gift of oratory, when we lack the vision to see the stage, the lights, the audience, the endless rigging and ropes and set pieces behind us, manipulated by many hand.”

I understand what it’s like to be a kid with adult responsibilities.

I understand that Jesmyn’s father lived a harsh reality, but I can’t help to think that he was selfish. Selfish for leaving his children repeatedly and cheating on his wife with children. Systemic cycles are real and relentless, but where does responsibility fall?

The cycle black families in the South are caught in is relentless. What is the solution? Government intervention and support? Education in schools about poverty and racism? Systemic societal changes? Time?

The “it” that haunts DeLisle is generational cycles.