(Geek's note: this review is in regards to Show Me a Hero, the book. Not the HBO miniseries!)
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
But
what makes a hero?
Show Me a Hero is a fascinating look at a true story
regarding public housing in the city of Yonkers in the late 80s and early 90s. The city, as we’re told, was of a
predominantly middle-class white population; it was far from diverse. However, Yonkers did contain public housing or
“projects”, that were segregated and located primarily on the east side of the
city. It’s noted that tenants within the
public housing were primarily black or Hispanic.
After a court order to desegregate the public housing, the
city was ordered to construct townhouses (not apartment complexes which cities
were generally accustomed to in regards to public housing) that were scattered
throughout the west parts of the city i.e. the less diverse areas. The idea was to integrate the less fortunate
folks into communities where they would feel safer, less guarded and with an actual
sense of community; to increase their sense of identity by bringing them an
affordable house. This in turn would
bring racial diversity to the existing white communities. If the communities were not diverse, the
diversity would literally be artificially injected into them. As one might imagine, the court order mandate
caused uproars amongst the existing white communities; the communities were not
as susceptible to change.
In the midst of the proposed changes, a bright young man
named Nick Wasicsko was elected as mayor primarily on the platform that he
would fight against the court order for public housing. Although that was his position going in,
after threats of bankrupting the city for disobeying orders, he was faced with
a tough decision: continue to fight and appeal the order and bankrupt the city
hence putting several hundred city employees out of work or to comply with the
order and face public upheaval.
The book doesn’t just follow Nick’s story, but brings about
a rounder perspective by showing you the lives of other proponents. We also follow Mary Dorman, a middle aged
Caucasian woman who was in staunch support of the groups who fought to oppose
the changes. Or Billie Rowan, a young
black teenager who becomes pregnant and mixed up with a young Hispanic miscreant
named John. Or Alma Febles, a young Dominican
woman, who works endlessly to support and provide the best for her growing
offspring.
Nick Wasicsko amongst reporters.
The book follows each of these characters (and a handful of
others) as we see their lives change as a result of the public housing
situation. Some lives experience
positive changes, while others see struggles.
At the end, author Lisa Belkin poses a question to the reader. Having read about the lives and the journeys from
different perspectives, who is a hero?
What makes them a hero?
For a nonfiction story, Belkin approached the book in an
unconventional narrative style instead of a more traditional investigative approach
one would expect from a nonfiction title.
What this did was instead of presenting facts to you, we’re presented
with stories. We’re brought to the
ground level to experience the emotions with people who have been through the
struggles. And it is interesting. It’s hard to believe that such a thing
happened in America less than 30 years ago.
Although, one only needs to turn on CNN for a few minutes to realize, oh
yeah, racism is still a thing.
I first heard about Show Me a Hero over a year ago. David Simon, the mastermind behind probably
one of my favourite shows, The Wire, announced his upcoming project – the adaptation of Show Me a Hero (book) into a miniseries on HBO. The announcement of the project came with
limited information regarding the true story; that of the youngest mayor in
Yonkers who ended up in the middle of a racial and class battle amongst the
town’s citizens. Without too much other
information, but coupled with the fact that Simon was working on it was enough
to pique my interest. I did some
research shortly after and was fascinated by the real world story. Just warning you, if you’re at all interested
in the TV show or the book, DO NOT look up the Wikipedia entry for this story! There are sad things that happen, and it may
be better discovered during the show instead of its Wiki entry.
The HBO miniseries debuted last night – August 16, 2015. I’m quite interested to see what stories they
chose to follow and how closely it follows the true stories. The series is being released at an
interesting time in America, where racial tensions are high post-Ferguson.
Whether one can relate to the subject matter or not, I think
at the human level we can all relate to that idea of change and resistance. The important thing to reflect on is how can
your character grow? Until next time later
geeks!
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see
yourself become the villain.”
-Harvey Dent; the Dark Knight (2008)
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