Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Content Warning: The section of the guide contains information about police brutality related to Black men and teens.

One of the underlying sources of tension for Norris and Judith stems from the systemic racism they face as Black individuals in the United States. Late in the novel, Norris has a run-in with a police officer while drunk, resulting in a trip to the station. The resulting conversation between Norris and his furious mother highlights the dangers faced by Black men and teens at the hands of police officers and paranoid, misguided vigilantes. Judith mentions Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and Cameron Tillman, Black teen boys killed by the police or armed citizens. Although Judith only mentions these three boys, police officers have killed many other Black people in the United States. According to a study by researchers at Harvard, Black people are over three times more likely to be killed than white people during police encounters in the US (Schwartz, Gabriel L., and Jaquelyn L. Jahn. “Mapping fatal police violence across U.S. metropolitan areas.” PLOS ONE, vol. 15, no. 6, 2020).

In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking back from a convenience store in his father’s fiancée’s neighborhood when a member of the local community watch program, George Zimmerman, called the police, claiming Martin was a “suspicious” figure.