Jesmyn Ward tells her life story in Men We Reaped. She describes five men she knew who died horribly and unfairly. Ward uses different methods throughout her memoir in order to set herself apart from her own community. Ward’s unaffectedness is a reflection of her general disengagement from the racism faced by other characters. Ward is portrayed as a strong woman who can overcome any obstacle. This makes her stand out from the rest of her community. Ward, despite being surrounded by people who are destined to poverty, drug abuse and death, is able escape the cycle and achieve success, wealth and education. Ward tries to imply in Men We Rapped that the specter systemic racist racism that is present in the story has also affected her. However, this assertion is disproven by the way that Ward portrays herself as immune from the many societal restrictions that are faced by other African Americans.
Ward uses drug abuse to symbolise the specter white oppression. It is an expression of black poverty, a result from centuries of white neglect. The novel shows that this racism is pervasive and is symbolized with drugs. It kills all black hope, joy, and bodies. Ward’s old friend Roger dies first. She recalls Roger, who, just before his death “talked of change, about returning home to California” but also “used more”, and “medicated himself with drugs and booze” (32). Roger’s dream of a better future is destroyed by the drug culture, which represents systemic racism among whites and African Americans. Roger’s dream of a better life becomes a disease when he is told that he must “medicate.” This racism destroys any chance for black hope, and turns it into ill. The drug trade not only kills black people but also the racism of society annihilates their hope for a better life. Ronald, a friend of Ward, was addicted to drugs and involved in drug trafficking towards the end. In a discussion with his girlfriend he told her “it’s just like my mom pushing me to the streets” (172), showing the hopelessness of black men and the inevitable death of drugs. Ward’s elder brother Joshua experienced a similar desperation near the end. Ward remembers that when she first met with him, he told her he had been “selling crack” (210) to make money. Ward was “unable to dispute” him (211) and this illustrates how African Americans often feel forced to trade because of urban poverty. Ward later notes that Joshua was “her father”, a further indication of the disenfranchised cycle of black men. In Ward’s autobiography, the effects of racism on African American communities are reflected in drug abuse and use. This has a pervasive effect that makes hope impossible.
Ward’s use of drugs had a very limited impact on her, even though she describes how many men have suffered from systemic racist prejudice. Dwight Garner writes that despite the fact that the memoir contains a lot of information about excessive drug use, drinking, and partying, it is still a book full of life. There are beer cans with weed in them, loud music playing, easy sex with the windows down, and the sense of community. Garner’s romanticized account of these “hot Mississippi Nights” doesn’t accurately represent the experience that most characters have, as they are the disenfranchised victim of a broken social system who often turn to drugs for necessity. Gardner’s critique of Ward does shed light on her carefree attitude to these activities. She was involved in “beer, weed, loud, easy music, easy sex and downed car windows” and suffered very little consequences. Ward recalls a time when she and her friends drank excessively. She called her drinking “insane,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “insane,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “insane,” “ecstatic,” “ecstatic,” “for this instant we are alive and young” (30). Ward’s description of the night as “ecstasy,” in contrast with the devastation experienced by her African American friends, shows how far removed she is. Ward may feel “young alive” doing drugs but these drugs literally kill several of the characters in her memoir. Again, this contrast highlights the difference between Ward’s experience and that of those around her. Ward also drank heavily after losing three friends in the summer 2003. She noted that she was under the impression that her youth could save her, and that there would be someone who had mercy on her (64). Ward uses the word “we”, implying that she too is a part of the group which needs saving. However, Ward’s drug use and drinking did not stop her from doing so and she was never in need of “mercy”, whereas others were. Ward, later that evening, equates the euphoric high from drugs with happiness and notes, “this what it means being spared” (64) Ward’s use of “spared” in this context indicates that her groupmates have recognized their differences. Ward is “spared” from the consequences that come with drug abuse. While others will suffer and die, Ward will not. Ward, later in his novel, notes that the “same pressures” were on all of them. “My entire community suffered a lack in trust: We didn’t believe that society would provide us with the basic necessities of a good job, safety, and access to good jobs” (169). Ward includes herself and uses “we” in the “community”, but she does not have any reason to be distrustful of society, as she is rewarded for her hard work and education. Ward’s resistance to drugs and its devastating effect on the African American Community is demonstrated once again when Ward and Nerissa visit Demon’s house following his death. Ward remembers “we parked here and drank there and got high”, but “now, there was a caution sign” (80). Ward didn’t smoke despite this. The “caution” symbol beautifully illustrates Ward’s difference from her African American community. While Nerissa smokes cigarettes, Ward exercises caution and avoids drugs that have devastated so many other characters. This shows Ward as being exempted from racism and its consequences. Ward’s immunity from the drug effects that devastated her entire community is indicative to Ward’s disengagement with systemic racism.
Ward’s apparent invincibility to racism, or any other factor that could hinder her is also shown by the portrayal of her as a fight in contrast to other African Americans who are depicted in the story in a helpless manner. Ward explains her own strength in describing the birth of her daughter. She says that despite the fact that she was born prematurely with many tubes, she lived “silently and tenaciously” in an incubator. Ward emphasizes her “abundance scars” (42), which she says are the physical marks of a true warrior. Ward’s memoir continues to portray her as invincible or resilient. Ward describes being attacked as a small child by a pitbull. After she repeatedly “punched his fists left and straight, over-and-over again,” she says, “he ran away, with his back curved.” (58). Ward’s triumph over the pitbull shows her to be a strong fighter. The dog’s “curved” back is a further indication that the beast was weak and cowardly. Ward’s physical strength is matched by responsibilities which make her feel invulnerable or important. Ward, who was an older sister at the time, often had to care for her younger sibling Joshua. Ward recalls that one night, when her parents were arguing, she comforted Joshua. Ward’s resilience and the vulnerability of African Americans are often compared. She remembers how her brother Joshua played with Aldon in childhood and that their “heads seemed too heavy for their shoulders.” They depended upon her. Ward is shown as strong, scrappy and independent when she is a child. Ward’s comparisons of the male and female characters become more extreme as they grow up. Ward calls her male counterparts “foolish”, whereas she continues to call herself strong. Ward portrays the African American poor community to which she belongs as unaffected by her circumstances.
Ward shows her physical and emotional distance from racism in her memoir. Ward’s ignorance of the problems that affect the African American community is evident when she tells her friends at a crawfish cook-off about the book she has written, which features black boys living in an urban, poor community like their own. She admits “couldn’t find a way to hate her characters” and wants “to protect them from death or drug addiction” (69). Ward is “protecting” her fictional characters because she has never experienced the racism African Americans experience. Ward’s detachment from the everyday struggles that African Americans must endure is evident in both the format and the plot of Men We Reaped. The memoir claims to contain an autobiography; however, Ward devotes more attention to the lives the five men in her book than she does her own. This is because the stories of these five men are more important in illustrating the impact systemic racism has on African Americans. Ward portrays other characters and people in her town in her book as “community”. However, she also “became a member of the community at my private school” because she “served in the student council, and briefly revived” the student literary journal” (206). Ward’s ability to use the term “community,” both to describe her African American friends and families and to describe the white students at her private school, shows her ability to bridge the gap between the two worlds. Ward’s emotional distance from African Americans is matched by her physical distance. Ward was studying for her MFA between 2003 and 2005, so she wasn’t physically present when the story took place. Ward is a unique individual, her circumstances and gender in particular allow her a certain freedom. The rest of her family members could never have that. As a women, she’s not trapped in the drug and death cycle that so many male counterparts have to endure. Ward, a young woman who was academically motivated and attended a mostly white private school, achieved academic and professional success, enabling her to escape the poverty cycle that so many other characters could not.
Ward’s story is not a reason to assume that systemic racism has no effect on her. Her brother and many of her friends died in tragic circumstances. Ward’s tales of senseless deaths among young African American men from gun violence and drugs are relevant today because they echo the Black Lives Matter movement that promotes equality in all races, specifically referring to police brutality. Ward also shares this conviction, noting that “this pain, for all of its weight, insists (my son) matters.” (243). Ward, like most African Americans, has suffered at the hands systemic racism and racial oppression. Ward’s story is not a tale of triumph over adversity. It’s a story about overcoming adversity. Neely Tucker, a critic, notes that “this book is not the one” that tells of a “Black girl in poverty-stricken small-town Mississippi getting a break… Triumphing over adversity by age 34. Huzzah! Ward’s tale does, however, exemplify the trope. Ward, a wealthy and successful African American who attended college, grew up in a wealthy family, and did not have any drug problems, is not an example of the community. Ward’s life is overshadowed, in Men We Reaped by the stories of the men who she portrays. Her story does not represent what African Americans face.