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“Sometimes the rules are different for black folks, baby,” she says. “Hell, sometimes they’re playing checkers while we’re in a complicated-ass chess game. It’s an awful fact of life, but it’s a fact. Midtown is unfortunately one of those places where you not only gotta play chess, but you gotta play it by a different set of rules.”
This quote takes place in Chapter Five, after Bri is attacked by the security guards at her school and just before Jay tells Bri that she lost her job at the church. Here, Jay breaks down the fundamental inequities of the racist system they live in, highlighting the ways that life is more difficult for Black people than white people. In checkers, all the pieces are essentially equal, and the game is straightforward and requires little skill. In chess, the rules are complicated, and the pieces are arranged in a complex hierarchy, with less powerful pieces are strategically sacrificed in order to preserve the more powerful ones. Even though it’s deeply unjust, Jay argues that Black people are stuck in an unfair chess game, hindered by a bewildering and disempowering set of rules. That means that Bri cannot expect to express herself, make mistakes, or challenge authority without fear of retribution, punishment, and even violence.
“You know how many rich white folks come to the courthouse on drug possession?”
"A whole lot,” says Jay.
"Too many,” Aunt ’Chelle says. “Every single one gets a little slap on the wrist and goes right back into society, like it’s all good. Black folks or poor folks get on drugs?”
"We’re ruined for life,” Jay says.
In Chapter Eight, Bri overhears this conversation between Jay and the other members of Jay’s recovery group, right before Bri goes to the studio for the first time and records “On the Come Up.” Here, the characters are reflecting on how much harder it is for Black people to recover from the mistakes in their lives. The court systems treat white people who develop drug addictions with a leniency that allows them to return to the world and go on to flourish in life. In contrast, recovering drug addicts of color are unjustly trapped and defined by their choice to do drugs. Racially biased systems like the courts, the police, and the job market judge Black people harshly and never forget their mistakes. This means that Black people are denied the power that white people have to recover, change, and thrive, and are stuck in a cycle of struggle and punishment.
“I respectfully ask the website Dat Cloud to remove ‘On the Come Up’ from their catalog. It has already caused damage. We cannot allow it to continue. You can add your voice by signing the petition at the link below. We must do more to protect our children.”
This quote from Emily Taylor’s article about Bri’s song takes place in Chapter Nineteen after the riot at Midtown High. Taylor’s article represents the voice of white fear in response to what is perceived as Black violence. Taylor is a white mother who is terrified to discover that her teenage son loves Bri’s song, which she vilifies for its “boasts about guns” and what she misinterprets as its calls for violence against police. Ironically, when Bri looks up Taylor’s online profile, she discovers that Taylor is an outspoken supporter of gun rights and has posted a family picture in which everyone, her son included, is holding a hunting rifle. Bri feels enraged by Taylor’s hypocritical double standard. Bri wryly notes that when Taylor says we must “protect our children,” she doesn't mean Black children like Bri.
