There are certain things that make feel very angry such as not reaching my goals, giving up, injustice, discrimination and racism. In this opportunity I would like to share with you something that happened to a friend of mine four months ago related to racism and came back to my mind after reading " Battle Royal". .
That night a group of friends came to my house, we were drinking some beers before going to the club named "Mad-house". At the moment we arrived there, my friend Guillermo, made the line in order to get in after paying the cover ticket.
Once at the entrance, the girl retrieving the tickets, asked him for his ticket. Guillermo in a funny and maybe in a silly way, started waving the ticket pretending that he would not give it to her. It was not in a bad or disrespectful way, he was just playing with her. Standing next to her, was a policeman, who immediately and without any warning punched him in the face, making him falling down to the floor. Almost at the same time, when he was lying on the floor, three bouncers caught Guillermo and twisted his arms, while the policeman dragged him down the stairs.
We tried to help him, I was crying because I saw blood in his face. We told the police officer to stop doing that. All that he did in response was to tell us to back off and do not interfere with his job.
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Guillermo was handcuffed and taken to jail, where he spent the whole night until we could raise the money for the bail. When I read the police report, I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. It said that Guillermo was the one who attacked him, and was disorderly intoxicated, even more, that he refused to cooperate and resisted to arrest. Guillermo never got a blood test to check up the alcohol level in his blood, but this did not stop the policeman to press charges against him under this argument.
Why "Battle Royal" reminded me of this experience?.
In the story the author allows us to see the world through the eyes of a young black boy who is trying to succeed in a predominantly white society, where those who are white have all the power and those who are blacks are their puppets.