On James Baldwin's The Evidence of Things Not Seen

On James Baldwin's The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Jonathan Pope

We arrive in 2023, where nothing has changed other than the system expanding right along with that distrust. Though these feelings may sting Black and brown officers who join the force to allegedly make a change, it hasn’t stung enough for them to remove themselves from this system of policing that has always been inherently racist. We have arrived in 2023, and a young Black man is used as “a human piñata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes. That is what we saw in that video,” according to the Nichols’ family attorney.


The Evidence of Things Not Seen was an eerie read, for the simple fact that Baldwin’s words fit too perfectly in the present day.

BOOK REVIEW: "The Water Dancer" A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

BOOK REVIEW: "The Water Dancer" A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Jonathan Pope

Ta-Nehisi Coates does a wonderful job of blending history with the fantastic. A story that is fictional to the wider audience, holds the history of our ancestors – who were forced on to ships and carried across the Atlantic, working entire lifetimes toiling in fields, only finding pieces of joy in the songs and dances they had carried with them and eventually passed on to their children, and those children’s children.

Book & Movie Review: 'The Hate U Give'

Book & Movie Review: 'The Hate U Give'

Jonathan Pope

The Hate U Give was not a forced depiction of black life, not an idealized version of what it meant to live in a neighborhood where gunshots are background noise – meant for a white audience to ooh and ahhh over. Thomas did not feel the need to explain what did not need to be explained. Starr’s parents were complicated and flawed but loved and cared for their children and community. Seven was a computer geek from the hood with no basketball talent, and a love so strong for his sisters that he was willing to give up collegiate opportunities to protect them. Starr’s friends, who we are introduced to throughout the novel, are both right and wrong in their own individual ways. And this is, to me, where the movie fails.

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