Looking outside the systems he sees hope, in criminal activity. He, like many others, did not see a way out through the established system. Buck (Asante) has a rough life and loses most of those around him. Hinton’s The Outsiders or That Was Then, This is Now, except it is all real. Reading the book, I kept thinking this is the 21st Century version of S.E. The sound is different but the message is, surprisingly, much the same. Previously, I would never had made the connection to what I listened to and what Asante listened to. There were kids you didn’t hang around with and places you just didn’t go. Cleveland’s education system was, and still is, in ruins. There was the lower class, white not black, the city was extremely segregated and we all kept to our side. I could identify with much of what Asante was experienced. I grew up on the east side of Cleveland in the l960s and 1970s. I do not like hearing base thumping from a car a half mile away.* I don’t understand the culture…until I read this book. I will be the first to admit that I do not like Hip-Hop. Currently, Asante is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Film at Morgan State University. He has accumulated many awards including the key to my adopted city of Dallas, Texas. He has written four books and has been in or directed three movies. Asante has an impressive educational background including The University of London, Lafayette College, and UCLA School of Theater Film and Television. Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante is a young man’s account of growing up in the inner-city.
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