4-99 Black

Cliques and Clicks

I was teaching the novel a separate peace. I talked to my students about cliques, groups, circles, friendship, belonging, being on the fringe. I related my stories of being a brown kid in a predominantly white high school. We talked about how it is also OK to belong and fit in. We all want to fit in. I wore clothing to look more like the majority.

We named some of the cliques in school; skaters, preps, jocks, goths, but we never mentioned a trench coat mafia. We talked about why some teens wear black. This was no dissertation statistically riddled with research, but my freshman could see the symbolism of wearing black—the absence of color the presence of separation and belonging. We talked about Black being the color you wear until you find the color you are.

Black is teenage purgatory.

I shared my observations of watching a neighbor boy-a nice kid, walk home many days. He always—not sometimes-always wore some piece of black clothing. He’s a clean kid: nice haircut, nice black pants, brand name black backpack, and nice black athletic shoes. I asked my students why this kid always wore black—he wasn’t a Goth. They told me that he just likes black. They told me he was trying to fit into lots of groups. They speculated that if he wore black, even if he looked nice, kids that were skaters and preps would like him