We learn quickly that she was one of five innocent black children who were murdered by a white man who cuts off their heads with a chainsaw and is given the floor to justify those actions in court. We learn about the Finkelstein 5 almost immediately – Emmanuel wakes from a nightmare where he’s seen a girl whose neck is “jagged with red savagery”. Emmanuel says that he could never clear below 1.5 Blackness with his “deep, constant brown” skin, and so he is doomed to continually manage and amend his appearance, and risks far more violent reactions from the public. As a very privileged white female, my only experience in being part of a minority comes from being hella gay which brings up separate but similar questions: Is this too gay for that event? How gay can I look without risking a bigot coming up to me and my girlfriend on a bus and punching us both in the face? Still, I have the privilege even within that of pushing my Gayness down to 0.0 if I need to. This self-moderation and self-policing is something that exists within many minorities, as we try to ensure that we are acceptably ‘packaged up’ for the day’s events. It is a really devastating opening conversation, and an example of where Adjei-Brenyah’s command of language and subject matter is particularly interesting. Uncomfortable truths for us, as readers, start with the very first page: “Like every morning, the first decision he made regarded his Blackness If he wore a tie, wing-tipped shoes, smiled constantly, used his indoor voice, and kept his hands strapped and calm at his sides, he could get his Blackness as low as a 4.0.” But as Emmanuel goes on to detail, when he dresses in similar clothes to the Finkelstein 5 (a hoodie and a cap), it brings his blackness up to a “solid 7.6” which leaves him feeling like he is “Evel Kneival at the top of a ramp”. Most situations, including talking on the phone, finding himself a job (one he is passed over for as they already have their “urban” choice), and simply walking on the street requires him to ‘tone down’ his Blackness so as to not put himself in danger, or make the white population uncomfortable. Our protagonist, Emmanuel, spends time detailing how he needs to dial up or down his “Blackness” depending on the situation. “The Finkelstein 5” is an atomic bomb of a first lesson in this debut collection. They are stuck, frustrated in a society that limits them, suffering. All of his stories focus on male protagonists who are deemed to be, or claim to be, ‘outsiders’. Though I liked every piece, I did return to some more than once – both: “The Finkelstein 5” and “Lark Street”.
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