INDIANA: SNAP LIKE JESSE

One of his signature expressions was “I am not afraid.” That day, after being called faggot by dozens of screaming children, Jesse positioned me in front of the mirror. He taught me to make wide circles with my arm. Three circles and a snap, he said. Snap on the word not. “I am not (snap) afraid.”

I practiced over and over.

“Let the children hear you,” he said.

When I went home, I stood in front of the mirror. I snapped and snapped and snapped. I snapped for my parents, who thought it was a beatnik thing. I snapped for my white friends, who thought it was funny. I snapped for my black friends, who gave me advice on how to snap even louder- how really scare people when I snapped. Because that was the purpose.

 

Kirk Read, How I Learned to Snap

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