In Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s piece, “The Finkelstein Five”, Adjei-Brenyah uses the perspective of a conflicted black man to highlight racial injustice in the United States. The use of a first person voice allows Adjei-Brenyah to directly connect these anecdotes with his intended audience: white people. This is achieved through the use of varying literary techniques, which will be elaborated upon below.
Adjei-Brenyah opens up his piece by contextualizing the conflict within a young black man. He uses a “blackness scale” that is referenced throughout the story as a symbol of the internal conflict that many African-Americans have with their own culture/heritage. This subconscious struggle is highlighted in the first page when Emmanuel, “it was impossible to get his [Emmanuel’s] blackness down”. The author uses this example as another reference to the white-washing of black culture, exemplifying how blacks try to ‘fit in’ society by conforming to ‘white’ standards. This train of thought also allows the readers to better understand the notion of racial profiling – a hard concept for non-blacks in American to grasp. To do this, African-american vernacular is used to give an authentic aura to the experience. Emmanuel’s backstory and personal experiences allow the audience to connect more with him, making them more disheartened when they read the implicit bias he faces. Parallelism is implemented throughout the text to highlight the difference in treatment by the justice system towards whites and non-whites. On page 5, the judge takes the side of George Wilson Dunn, “I’ll allow it”, while security guards regard Emmanuel with suspicion and “trail him”.
The author also uses the text to focus on the ideas of identity and representation by providing multiple perspectives. The verdict on the white man on page 3 underscores how tight-knit the black community is, “his father cursed. His mother punched honks”. This scene also exhibits how discrimination is shared by all minority communities, “friends of many different races…had gathered”. Within the black experience, the author presents an important dynamic in the black community: the father-son relationship. Emmanuel’s connection to his father links to how he attempts to subvert his inner blackness. However, after experiencing racism, this subversion capitulates. This culmination of personal experiences with racism and subtle racism directed towards blacks in media, “African diaspora (9)”, makes Emmanuel’s path to violence more plausible. The technique of switching between George’s perspective and Emmanuel’s life corresponds to the double standards of America’s justice system. George is shown to be calm and collected as he knows he will be protected, while Emmanuel feels paranoid because he knows of the system’s track record with African-Americans.
Adjei-Brenyah uses this story to connect to many themes of black culture. He expresses blacks’ internal struggle with their heritage and also their experiences with racism to draw greater attention for his readers. To conclude, racial injustice is clearly portrayed through the use of a dual perspective and recurring themes relating to black culture.