Fire in the Mirror : the Cause of the Riot and Aftermath of the Riot

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“Mirrors”, is the second scene in which Smith only includes one scene. Aaron Bernstein converses how “mirrors are associated with distortion both in literature and in science”. Those who observe the sky using telescope seem to create the largest and most powerful mirrors and focusing devices, so that they can see the longest and farthest into space, therefore reducing the amount of confusion that takes place. This can be inferred as a metaphor into real life socio-anthropological situations.

The “Hair” section start off the first scene with a black girl explaining how the Hispanic and black teenagers of the Brooklyn neighborhood tend to contemplate about race and how they fit into their own racial profiles. Essentially the girl is speaking about how social constructs and socialism theories play into the world of race and race identities. “Me and James’s Thing,” is a scene in how Reverend Al Sharpton once promised James Brown into how he would continue straightening his hair. This is in fact, a habit he started to emulate “white-people hair”. This is followed by Ribkah Siegals telling of the custom of using wigs in Lubavitch culture.

Smith continues her play with the next scene, labeled “Race”. Angela Davis is the main character here and she dives into the complexities of blacks, women, and black women and how that perception and place in society in America has evolved over the last few decades. She continues to discuss race and ethnicity. Monique “Big Mo” Mathew takes charge of the next section “Rhythm”, discussing the new culturally identifying and largely popular and growing music genre of rap and how women represented and viewed in this genre and cultures.

“Seven Verses”, is the next segment of the play with Professor Leonard Jeffries discussing his contributions in the book, “Roots”. This book details the life and stories of the people who were involved with the, then legal, slave trade. Letty Cottin Pogrebin starts the next scene with a theory that black people harass and see Jews as negative because they are the only ethnic groups that sees them as human and recognizes their basic human rights.at the hands of whites, stressing that blacks, and not Jews, are God's chosen people. Minister Conrad Mohammed backs this up with claiming that blacks are God’s chosen group and that Jews are not the Chosen, as they have so claimed over the last few millennia, using the tribulations suffered by blacks as a whole as a supporting argument. “Isaac” is a scene that details that Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s mother’s cousins helped Nazi’s during World War II in the concentrations, helping them gas and murder Jewish civilians. This tale was to describe the self-preservative act and the reasons behind so, to survive. Moving on, Robert Sherman explains that the race relations and all that it entails, is so deep and complex and is a multidimensional universe, that the English language could not even begin to explain and comprehend it.

Smith concludes the play with Rabbi Joseph Spielman describing his personal experiences and thoughts with the killings of Cato and Rosenbaum. He claimed that the black community lied or exaggerated the events in order to start the riots. Reverend Canon Doctor Heron Sam continues on to show his views by claiming that the Grand Rebbe’s and his follower base did not care about or valued human lives that were harmed and had no worries about the life of Cato. The scene of “Wa Wa Wa,” a citizen of Crown Heights claims that he witnessed the crash and that the police always give Jews preferential treatment and that justice is always denied towards the blacks in the community. Michael S. Miller contends that the blacks who reside in the neighborhood are profoundly and largely anti-Semitic, which helped push the negativity that ensued and is a main cause for the death of Rosenbaum and the eventual riots.

“Knew How to Use Certain Words”, is one of the last scenes of the final act and Henry Rice describes how they were struck by the police and arrested while trying to prevent further unrest between Blacks and Jews. He also told about how we was threatened by black men after he was released from jail. Norman Rosenbaum, the brother of the slain Australian scholar describes how the murder of his brother was injustice and atrocious and in the penultimate scene of the act, “16 Hours Difference, he continues to relay the feeling and actions he experienced when was informed of stabbing of his brother and is death.

“Bad Boy”, is a scene that is backing up the accused murdered of Rosembaum, claiming that he would not have done so because he would have been risking his current life as a star athlete. The scene progresses with Sonny Carson speaking about how he is connected with the black youth culture of the neighborhood and how he began to be a public figure in the outcry against white power.

Rabbi Shea Hecht goes on to explains the problems that integration and race relations have with each other and criticizes the solutions that are used to help ease the tensions. Al Sharpton takes over the “Rain” portion of the play and recounts his reason why flew to Israel to confront the driver that killed Cato and that he a civil lawsuit would ensue. Furthering, Richard Green talks about black power and the angry and frustrations of the youthful community of the neighborhood and how this community was suffering from legitimate and good leaders that could be examples for those citizens of Crown Heights.

All in all, these different scenes and acts and themes together paint a portrait of the differences that each opposing side faced into the events of the Crown Heights Riots. Smith effectively and efficiently captures the emotions and feeling of witnesses and experientors of the events and places them together to help try to give reasoning and understanding of the riots. She certainly and accurately explores historical aspects while making sure to capture the current political, economic, and sociological aspects that contributed to the events, all through the eyes and voices of the people who were there, all through firsthand accounts. With this, as readers and watchers, we can then begin to explore the theme and the environments that are cast over the play.

Smith has accurately painted a moving picture of the Crown Heights Riots and uses many different perceptions of the people that experienced it. Smith uses her play to create a theme of racial tension and aggravated relations/relationship between ethnicities and use them to depict those feelings and emotions from both sides of the board. Smith tends to use the events that happened to paint a broader perspective on racial relations as a whole by the Crown Heights Riots into an example and