Kiswana

Kiswana is a proud African American that dropped out of college for protesting on equal rights and a better community for her people. She feels that by living in a bad neighborhood she is staying true to them and not selling out, she even changed her name from Melanie to Kiswana to be more in touched with her roots. However, she feels like her mother has sold out on all African Americans because of the fact that she lives in Linden Hills and because her husband does real estate which brings in a good amount of money for them.

Mrs. Browne, her mother, tries to convince Kiswana that she doesn’t have to live in that ghetto neighborhood because she could afford to do much better if she would just let her help. But because Kiswana wants to feel independent and carry out her proud African lifestyle, she doesn’t want any help. She then begins to snap on her dear mother who is just trying to protect and help her out, by calling her a sell out because she’s living in a higher standard than most African Americans.

Mrs. Brown tries to calmly explain to her that she is a proud member of NAACP and she still looks out for her people. She also explains to Kiswana that she wouldn’t be selling them out by going to college and living in a better neighborhood, because she could just get a good paying job and open up some kind of school to help out with the community. She also tries to enlighten her in a way of saying that, by her living and taking in the same lifestyles as “her people” she’s not proving any type of point or making anything better she’s just simply joining them and in her case she’s giving up because she feels she has a lot more potential than just to quitting on getting an education.

After every kind of advice Mrs. Browne tried to give Kiswana, she just became more stubborn and ignorant towards her mother. The rude comments got worst and it abruptly ended after Kiswana turned to Mrs. Browne and said she’d rather be dead than be like her, because she was ashamed of being black. The hurt in her mother’s eyes made Kiswana realized what she had just said. Mrs. Browne