bintou0051

Bintou Kaba

March 6, 2014

Journal Assignment  

The Struggles of a Young Black Man in America: What obstacles does Jamal have to overcome to succeed?

            The obstacles Jamal have to overcome to succeed is lack of privilege due to his race, poverty, and the environment. Jamal being a young black man from the rough neighborhood in the Bronx where young boys feel like there is little hope. Rap or basketball is the only way out, gangs everywhere plus outside world racist in America. In the story, “Finding Forrester,” the author creates a setting to show that Jamal is faced with many obstacles in his life. These difficulties make it hard for Jamal to succeed in life. For example, Jamal grows up in the Bronx in New York. The first scene of the movie takes place were Jamal is playing basketball on a court outside Forrester’s apartment. The scene shows how windswept the neighborhood is.

            Growing up in poverty, and living in a poor rough neighborhood; there are few expectations that he will get out of poverty. No support from those in the neighborhood to be anything successful other than a basketball player or rapper. The society which tells him a poor black kid from the ghetto doesn’t have the skills or even the will to become someone successful. That is still a big obstacle today to young black man in America to overcome. Like the Professor Robert Crawford: said [to Jamal] “perhaps your skills do reach farther than basketball”.

Jamal: “Further”

Prof. Robert Crawford: What?  

Claire Spence: [whispered to Jamal] don’t…

Jamal: [to Crawford] you said that my skills reached “farther” than basketball. “Farther” relates to distance, “further” is a definition of degree. You should have said “further”.

Prof. Robert Crawford: Are you challenging me, Mr. Wallace?

Jamal: Not any more than you challenged Coleridge.

            Conclusion, in this movie the prof. Robert Crawford think Jamal is unable to do classroom work, and then he thinks Jamal is plagiarizing when writing for the contest only because he is from the Bronx. He even said in the movie “he is the basketball player from the Bronx”. The professor made an assumption based on his race, and environment. Forrester said to Jamal “when they don’t understand, they make assumptions”.