Look Inside. That's Where It Counts.

After reading Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, I felt as though I had been given a very rare opportunity to get inside the heads of 18 people that could not have come from more diverse backgrounds. While the author could obviously not have gone through every experience the individuals she wrote about did, she really seemed to touch on very specific problems that not only teens, but people of all ages face in terms of race, gender, physical appearance, and loss of family members.

In regards to our insider/outsider discussions, this reminded me of a specific passage in Jacqueline Woodson's article that stated: "While I have never been Jewish, I have always been a girl. While I have never lived on the Upper West Side, I have lived for a long time in New York" (43, Woodson). She is simply stating that although she does not personally possess all of the qualities that her characters do, that does not make her unable to create an interesting story with situations that are concealed in today's society. I feel as though Grimes took the same path when writing Bronx Masquerade. She can not be all of the races that she describes in her story, but she does seem to make accurate assumptions about the students she creates. She then successfully tells the story of 18 people that seem to have nothing in common, but with encouragement to tell their own story, find out just how well they are understood by their peers.