Setting
written by Rachna Halker
It’s August 26th of 1963 in downtown Washington D.C. You are walking quickly down a relatively crowded and busy concrete sidewalk, trying to get to work as soon as possible. The air is unusually chilly this morning and a frigid draft blows past you, so you turn up the collar of your coat to keep out the cold. The industrial smells of smoke and oil from factories and shops assault your nose as you progress further down the walkway. As you walk, people either openly sneer at you in a disgusted manner, walk a little too quickly when they see you, or just ignore you entirely. All this doesn’t faze you, however. Since childhood, you’ve learned that no matter how much of a facade of acceptance they put up, the white people will always hate and resent you. Sometimes they try to hide their disgust and sometimes they don’t, but no one can do anything about it because that’s just the way things are. The way things always were. You walk faster in an attempt to push away the bitter thoughts gnawing away at you.
Suddenly, you are shaken out of your thoughts by a raucous yelling and jeering from across the road that carried well above the normal commotion of the city streets. You along with several other passersby turn towards the source of the noise and are greeted with an abhorrent sight. A group of four heavily built and extremely threatening white men are kicking, hitting, and jeering at a young African American man. He is obviously exhausted and severely injured, probably with some broken bones. He attempts to shield himself from further injury but soon gives up as the punches keep coming. A small crowd starts to form around the brawl and soon swells into a clamorous mob. The minority of those people stood staring in horror at the scene, not knowing what to do or screaming at the thugs to stop, but their cries are drowned out.
What do you do?