By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Author’s Recap – 12-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that’s been unleashed on his family, his friend Carlos, and his community in the wake of what they see as an unjust brutal killing. Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father’s actions.
Readers Take – The beat of racism is consistent throughout the book that police are racist and most whites due to their racist past. There is an absence of balance in how police are portrayed. It’s hard to imagine that white 6th or 7th grade students wouldn’t feel shame or guilt reading this in addition to having a negative feeling about the police. Likewise a similar black student not having negative feelings toward their white counterparts. Following are excerpts from the book.
Ghost Boys Review
Page 3 – Jerome is shot dead.
Page 24 – Dad – “police murdering my boy “
Page 25 – Dad – “since slavery white men have been killing blacks.”
Page 26 – Carlos is introduced as a new student. “New students are beat-down magnets by the bullies.”
Page 50 – Court hearing – Police officer is testifying about the shooting. Jerome wonders why the officer “is telling lies.” Throughout the hearing, the police statements are contradicted by Jerome.
Page 57 – Carlos uses a toy gun to scare three boys beating on him, convincing them that it is a real gun.
Page 65 – Sarah, the policeman’s daughter, is introduced. She and Jerome have a conversation: Sarah – “police protect and serve”, Jerome – “he didn’t protect me.”
Page 66 – Sarah starts to question her dad’s truthfulness because Jerome is “not tall and scary” as she heard her dad describe.
Page 67 – Jerome tries to convince Sarah that it was not a mistake; that her dad “did it on purpose.”
Page 69 – Sarah’s concerned that she too might get shot by police. Jerome says “no because you’re a girl and white.” Jerome says, “How many times have I heard; be careful of police, be careful of white people? Everybody in the neighborhood knew it. Pop told me as soon as I could read.”
Page 79 – Jerome now has the toy gun, “the trigger cocks just as if you are loading or firing a real gun.”
Page 86 – Prejudice and racism is introduced into the court proceedings, The prosecutor asks “Is it possible you were responding to unconscious stereotypes of black men as large, threatening, and dangerous?“
Page 95 – Jerome – “Hundreds, thousands of Ghost Boys standing, ever still looking up, through the windows into our soles ” all killed in the same way as Jerome.”
Page 108 – Jerome critiques of the video – “Seconds. That’s all. 2 seconds. Me, standing. A police car, moving fast, I turn, fall. The gun skitters. I bleed.” Sarah is changed forever.
Page 111 – 911 dispatcher knew, but did not tell police officers that it was a toy gun.
Page 123 – Police officer admits that he did not render or call for aid.
Page 130 – Prosecutor shouts loudly, Why was the child shot in the back?”
Page 138 – Judge rules not enough evidence to charge police to proceed with a trial.
Page 152 – Emmett Till describes his visit to Mississippi and the racism and hate that existed at the time in the South, as well as the expectations that whites had of blacks, such as, don’t look them in the eye, move off the sidewalk to step out of their way, etc. Unfortunately, Emmett did not abide by these white rules and found himself in serious trouble by insulting a white woman. The story continues with his kidnapping and graphic details of his death.
Page 178 – Sarah’s creating a website about racism and injustice. “Did you know that black people are shot by cops two and a half times more than white people but they only are about 13% of the population? In 2015, over 1,000 unarmed black people were killed, it’s awful.” Calls her father a racist. (Incorrect Data – see below)
Sarah becomes a social warrior and her dad eventually sees the errors of his ways and joins her cause.
Washington Post Article:
In 2015, the first year The Post tallied these numbers, officers killed 94 unarmed people, the largest group among them black men: 38.
The following year saw a large drop in the number of unarmed shootings, declining to 51, with 22 of those killed being white and 19 black. The number has remained relatively steady each year since. In 2019, 55 unarmed people were shot and killed by police, with white people accounting for 25 of them, while 14 of them were black.
Some numbers in the Post database have increased recently after additional research was conducted into shootings where categorization data had been unknown. For example, shootings of unarmed black people in 2019 increased from nine to 14.