Rashid's All-American Boys

In All-American Boys, Rashid’s near-murder works similarly to the murders of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and others because of the reaction the community has to the assault. When Rashid is beat by Paul in the convenient store, the graphic nature and the implication that Paul could have killed Rashid, spurs a movement within the community. The action taken by the community in the novel is what always seems to happen in the real world. The action taken by Rashid’s friends to spray paint the phrase “Rashid is absent again today” is a constant reminder to the school what happened to Rashid. It is the action that spurns the girls to pass out flyers about a march, it makes people angry and want to react. Rashid comments that his experience has been

By having a lesbian relationship in the text, it shows representation and the normalcy of having a relationship with someone of the same sex. The two girls obviously care about each other; Anne is very concerned for Diana’s health when she accidently gets drunk. If we read it as queer, their relationship is positive and healthy, which provides great representation for queer relationships. It also shows that children have some innate understanding of what person they are attracted to, without understanding what “lesbian” or “queer” means. One of the disadvantages of reading the text as a lesbian relationship would be negating the importance of close female friendship. By insisting that Anne and Diana’s relationship is queer, we categorize all close female companionship in the text as queer. When the friendship becomes romantic, it looses the importance of friendship that Anne and Diana build throughout the novel. Diana helps Anne fit into Green Gables, and is her first true friend. Diana provides contrast to Anne’s character. Instead of relying on the importance of friendship, which is a big part of the book, a romantic relationship would take prominence and diminishes the “moral” of having close friends to confide in. Anne is constantly telling Diana that she is her bosom buddy and will be her best friend for life. It also makes Anne and Diana appear older because of their imitation of romance novels. Perhaps they are indeed lesbian, but to impose a “romantic” relationship on young children enforces social constructs of what it means to be in a romantic relationship. The addition of a romantic relationship at a young age also sexualizes Anne, and while this also happens with Gilbert, it doesn’t happen until later in the novel when Anne is much