Synopsis:
There is an unspoken agreement between the racially divided towns of Bayside and Hamilton: no one steps over the train tracks that divide them. Or else.
Not until Zach Whitman anyway, a white boy who moves in from Philly and who dreams of music. When he follows his dream across the tracks to meet his idol, the famous jazz musician who owns The Sunlight Record Shop in Hamilton, he’s flung into Capri Collins’s path.
Capri has big plans: she wants to follow her late mother’s famous footsteps, dancing her way onto Broadway, and leaving this town for good, just like her older brother, Justin, is planning to do when he goes off to college next year. As sparks fly, Zach and Capri realize that they can help each other turn hope into a reality, even if it means crossing the tracks to do it.
But one tragic night changes everything. When Justin’s friend, the star of Hamilton’s football team, is murdered by a white Bayside police officer, the long-standing feud between Bayside and Hamilton becomes an all-out war And Capri, Justin, and Zach are right in the middle of it.
CW: racism, racial slurs, suicide, police brutality, death
NOTE: This is going to be spoiler filled. All quotes come from the ARC I received from the publisher.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know I have been vocal about disliking Other Side of the Tracks (OSOOT). Now welcome to my detailed explanation of some of the reasons why.
Before I go into specific character details, let’s talk about the central conflict.
OSOOT is an interracial Romeo and Juliet story at its core. Everything is done to serve this love story; therefore, saying it was written with Black boys in mind is hard to believe.
The central conflict of this book is the death of a young Black boy, Tyree, by a white police officer. Tyree’s death is decentered in the novel because of the romance.
During the utterly just anger of the Black community in the novel, the main female character Capri focuses more of her thought and care on her white love interest, Zach, rather than Tyree. The latter had just been forcefully taken from the world.
Capri cites not being close to Tyree and wanting to focus more on her relationship with Zach instead of grieving for a Black boy who wasn’t really her friend.
“I wanted to escape to where I didn’t have to feel pressure to abandon a budding relationship with Zach because of a murder he didn’t commit.”
This moment is used to show how much she cares about Zach. Tyree’s death is the conflict that pulls the two lovers apart, per the inspiration of Romeo and Juliet.
It is completely disrespectful.
Using a violent death, from an issue so tender to many Black people, as a vehicle for a Black girl to emphasize her love for a white boy is NOT writing a book for Black boys. It shows you don’t care about Black boys. It shows their trauma and literal death are only good enough to propel a romance.
Now let’s get into 2 more ways Alyse fails Black boys.
FAILURE 1: Misunderstanding Black boyhood
It is hard to believe OSOOT was written with Black boys in mind when it is clear that Alyse doesn’t know what Black boyhood means. Aside from her treatment of the Black boys (and men) in this story, Alyse’s fundamental misunderstanding of Black boys is apparent in her characterization of the white love interest, Zach.
Zach is seen as a ‘different’ white boy. One who doesn’t adhere to the rules other white people from the racist Bayside do.
And what does Zach do that is different? He has a fade, likes jazz music, and has Black friends. Throughout the book, it is mentioned that Zach attempts to be Black.
- “You’ll stop trying to be someone else.” His dad mentions after flicking his diamond-studded earlobe.
- “I’m saying you’re not Black, Zach, so you can stop trying to act like it.” Virginia says to him after a confrontation.
- “You don’t look like Bayside material, and you sure seem like Hamilton material, but you don’t got the color for it.” Black musician, Easy, says upon meeting him for the first time after hearing him talk about Jazz.
- “He doesn’t have to worry about fitting in too much. Being too white for the Black people and too Black for the white.” Capri says about Zach at the end of the book.
Even so much so that Zach himself says this after being challenged to rap by some Black boys on the basketball team.
“I took a breath and let it out, immensely tired of all the crap I was getting from Bayside because I wasn’t “white” enough, and now Hamilton because I was too white.”
Zach’s characterization as a Black boy only shows Alyse’s understanding of Black boyhood is riddled with stereotypes.
When dealing with her actual Black MC, Justin. Alyse utilizes stereotypes there as well.
Justin starts as a boy struggling under the burden of being a “man of his family” while trying to figure out his own path. I was most interested in his POV at the story’s beginning because I thought it would be about a Black boy figuring out his life choices and fulfilling his dreams.
Unfortunately, his story deteriorates rapidly as the book goes on. He goes from a conflicted boy with a pregnant girlfriend to a boy who cheats on his girlfriend (causing them to break up and her to move away), loses his friend to police brutality, and then loses the basketball scholarship that was supposed to take him to college due to racism. After these events, the typically calm and dependable Justin becomes so angry and violent that he attempts to burn down the racist cop’s house. This causes him to go to jail and never see his son after the initial visit. Resulting in a plethora of negative racial stereotypes typically attributed to Black men.
Justin’s character arc would have been different in reception if it became commentary about how Black boys are broken by society and the dangers of that. However, after losing the scholarship and getting (rightfully) upset about it, Justin’s girlfriend, Rose, claims that his angry outburst — fighting a white player who joked about Tyree’s death- is one of the reasons why she’s leaving him.
“You’re not responsible and you follow after your emotions too much. The fight tonight, for example, was out of hand.”
By doing this, Alyse disregards the love story she has set up for Justin and Rose.
If your Black male MC ends up without a relationship and in jail, can that still be said to be written for Black boys?
FAILURE 2: Centering Whiteness
Alyse makes Zach a hero despite his shortcomings by making him a love interest. This makes him the hero of the story ahead of the Black boys.
One of our first introductions to Zach is when he gets to the all-white town Bayside and has to hang out with a girl, Virginia, and her friends at a diner. Here, he meets the only Black boy, a server and high schooler, Thomas. To the dismay of the white kids present, Zach and Thomas start a conversation until Zach is called back to the white kids’ booth. A few minutes later, Virginia and her friends play a “prank” on Thomas by pouring hot cheese on him, upsetting Zach.
Zach is so upset that when they leave the diner, he confronts Virginia and, in his confrontation, says
“Like what, Virginia? Want me to say it like the people I heard calling him a nigger in there while I walked out?”
At that moment, I closed the book and immediately considered DNFing.
The fact that Alyse uses this scene to show us Zach’s morals is comical because, as a Black reader, I immediately distrusted Zach and began questioning the book’s purpose. In OSOOT, Alyse clearly shows that a white person using the n-word, a hard r at that, is okay in defense of Black people. If, as a non-Black reader, you’re wondering if this is true, I am here to tell you it is not.
I continued reading to see if this would be addressed in any way. Instead, Zach is made the love interest, and by the end of the book, he is made a martyr.
Throughout the book, Zach’s racism and white privilege are displayed with hardly any reprimand.
At one point, the Black jazz musician, Easy, Zach idolizes, announces a comeback tour, and wants to hire an opening act. Easy mentions only wanting to consider Black talent for the gig. Zach immediately gets upset, so he lies to Easy to get an audition using Thomas’s name.
He doesn’t even have the decency to alert Thomas till Thomas meets Easy himself and is confused why someone is telling him he’s excited to hear him sing. Thomas is upset but agrees to help him. Capri also agrees to help him with the audition because he “deserves” a shot.
Zach notes his white privilege regarding the audition. However, he disregards it because he’s a big fan of Easy and is tired of waiting for his shot.
“He won’t even look at me twice, because I’m white. I understand that he wants to give a Black singer an opportunity, and I’m sure there are many more talented than me. But I want a fair shot. I know my skin comes with privilege; I recognize that it makes things easier for me. I thought I was different from these people in Bayside, but I’m realizing maybe not so much. I hope you can forgive me, because I’ll try my best to do better from here on out and if I’m not, call me out on it. But you said it yourself last night, Capri. You weren’t going to let anyone hold you back from accomplishing your dreams; not your family, not nobody. I’m tired of waiting around.”
After this incident, it is clear that Zach is selfish and somewhat problematic (I’m being kind).
The way Alyse writes these inherently racist and micro-aggressive actions without any pause reiterates my belief that not all authors have the tact or skill to integrate complex subject matter into their work.
Dealing with the after-effects of Tyree’s death, Zach is made a hero.
He is the one who goes to the house of the cop and brings him to the church during Tyree’s homegoing to tell Tyree’s mother how her son died.
The cop tells a detailed story of how his son died in the war in Iraq. They were never informed of the real cause of his death, so he wants to tell the truth to give the family the comfort they never received.
The cop and his daughter, Virginia, throughout the novel, are painted as highly racist. For Alyse to attempt to garner sympathy for them at this moment is insulting to her characters and the reader. You cannot convince me staunch racists will suddenly decide to admit to killing a Black boy. We have seen it in the news, we know the truth, and this isn’t it.
The Black characters in the book accept this, and Zach is praised as the person bridging the gap between the two towns.
At the end of the book, when Justin attempts to burn down the racist cop’s house with a friend Carlos, Capri tries to calm him down. Still, Zach follows behind her shortly, despite her warning him not to, which upsets Justin further. Justin ends up fighting Zach because he promised he would if he ever saw him with his sister again. After their fight, Carlos reveals he has a gun and shoots Zach.
Zach’s death is put on the same pedestal as Tyree’s, and the book’s ultimate message is revealed — we shouldn’t judge people.
Capri says:
“Zach and Tyree taught us the problem with the world, the problem that grows in each of us. Our discomfort with our neighbor, the people we walk by and judge everyday. The Black boy who is painted as a criminal because of the stereotypes we choose to believe and paint on everyone whose skin is darker than ours. Or the white boy who finds comfort in rap culture, in Black history, who dreams different and talks different than what we think he supposed to. Who do we think we are? We’re not God. We can’t choose how someone has to behave. We can’t destroy the lives of the people that make us uncomfortable.”
It is not wrong to believe we shouldn’t judge others. However, it is wrong that the judgments that lead to the death of Black boys in fiction and reality are spoken in the same breath as judging a white boy for “liking Black culture.” Zach’s death was sad, but it was more for him being white and being present in a moment he shouldn’t have been in rather than being a white boy who liked Black culture.
Conflating these two issues makes me question Alyse’s understanding of structural racism in policing and what that means for Black people, specifically Black boys.
Conclusion
A book that features a Black boy’s death, a Black boy’s constant interaction with racism to no end, and a Black boy in prison is NOT written for Black boys.
