Lebert Bethune's The Burglar

SANTIAGO DE LOS CABELLEROS. That’s where my family is from in the Dominican Republic. Everything about it warms my heart just as much as the vicious sun does, midday; penetrating your pores until you’re almost sure they aren’t there anymore. My father’s side of the family had just came down from the Capitol, which is known to be ignorantly snobbish and high maintenance despite being from a third world country. I live legit right across the street from the most famous landmark of the city in DR, The Monument. So, we took these people over to it and on most nights the hill is filled with lively music, drunk dancing men, carriages, and food trucks. The Dominican night air smelled earthly and damp, yet you could feel its purity in the pit of your …show more content…
Initially, I genuinely craved to be as humble and naïve as our server that night, yet after the altercation found myself questioning at what cost would I want to be that good at heart? I came to the conclusion that it’s the best of people that get trampled over the worse, and selfishly decided that I didn’t want to be good person because I hardly wanted to be considered part of the human race anymore. As disturbing as the short story was, under its fog of sexuality and male incompetence in marriage lies the foundation of “basic human nature”: to want every single external aspect that lies in front of you rather than conform to the things that you already have. This theory was not only proposed, but also exercised, since the beginning of mankind when man first created civilization. Tribes resulted slaughtering small towns and communities simply for resources that they never had. In this story, Mary Alice longs to not only look like the Tanganyika women, but within her lied a craving for affection so deeply rooted that it caused her to fantasize over an African burglar. The interesting twist lies in the fact that it isn’t considered, in society, basic human nature to want features, characteristics, or even lust over anything slightly black. It is considered abnormal, anomalous, and any author who even attempts to make anything Black desirable, it is automatically …show more content…
It created such an impact in American music that when you think of the “Roaring Twenties” and Fitzgerald, you are forced to think of it: The Jazz Age. Through this art of expression, African Americans managed to create something that white society considered desirable. It was integrated as a part of our culture and like Mary Alice, Americans longed for it. Jazz was the epitome of the Twenties serving as a foundation for its identity. Furthermore, we are able to see this portrayal of African American longing in today’s cultural appropriation in the media. Kylie Jenner and the Kardashians are responsible for making girls all over the world think that box braids and full lips (JUST like Mary Alice) belongs to their image. Within their particular styles in fashion and fake bodies we are able to see this intense longing to be African American and this celebrity pop culture is then integrated into American society so that everyone shares the same desires. Although cultural appropriation sheds the originality of initial cultures, it tends to romanticize, hence Mary Alice’s fascination with Tanganyika women. Except Bethune wanted to go further then just create a plot twist, he wanted to make us truly understand the fact that this is natural. It is natural, despite popular misconception, because African culture is absolutely