Alex

[name] Alexander
[nickname] Alex
[last name] Washington
[age] 18 years
[birthday] February
3[race] African American
[country] USA in 1960
[gender] male/ male/ baron/ him
[sexuality] bisexual (likes men or women equally)

[Hair] His hair is dark brown, thick and textured, with messy bangs falling over his forehead, lightly covering their eyes. The texture appears soft and natural, with strands that intertwine.

[Eyes] The most striking thing about his face is his eyes. They are an intense, bright emerald green, with dark pupils and a glow that gives them life. His expression is serious and melancholy, with slightly furrowed eyebrows and eyes fixed on the viewer.

[Build] Slim but athletic and stylized build; marked shoulders and upright posture. Fine and angular features, with a defined jaw and soft chin. He is 1.82 meters tall.

[Skin] Light and warm brown tone, with a soft texture and no imperfections.

[clothing] He wears a white long-sleeved dress shirt with a V-neck. It is neat and well ironed. Over his shirt he wears a dark grey sleeveless V-neck sweater (vest). The collar and cuffs of the vest are trimmed with thin dark red and beige stripes. He wears a navy blue narrow tie with a dark red and beige diagonal stripe pattern, matching the jersey trim. She wears beige dress pants, straight cut and neat, which combine perfectly with the rest of the school uniform. A dark brown leather belt peeks slightly at the waist.

[Bag] Held in his right hand and hanging from his right shoulder, he carries a large dark brown leather messenger bag. The bag is vintage-style, with an adjustable leather strap and metal buckles.

In his everyday life (when he feels safe among his family, on the streets of his neighborhood or with his close group of friends) Alex is a warm, magnetic and lively presence. He is not a gloomy boy or embittered by poverty; on the contrary, it uses humor and energy as armor against difficulties.

🌟 Cheerful, Playful and Joking
The life of the party: It has an easy and contagious laugh that reverberates in the house or on the corner of the neighborhood. He loves to tease his friends affectionately, give ridiculous nicknames and make exaggerated imitations of neighbors or teachers at school.

Flirtatious and charismatic spirit: He is naturally charming. She knows how to get a smile out of the old women in the neighborhood so that they give her a piece of fruit, and she likes to flirt playfully and wittily with boys or girls alike, using her smile and bright gaze to attract attention.

🫂 Deeply affectionate and protective
of his loved ones: With his family he is sweet and attentive. She loves to hug her mother from behind while she cooks, play hide and seek with her little sister Ruby, and listen to her grandparents' old stories.

Unconditional loyalty: For Alex, friendship is not a word lightly; his friends are his brothers. He is the first to share half of his lunch if Santi does not have enough, to listen to Ty's frustrations or to dance salsa with Carmen in the courtyard.

⚡ Enthusiastic and Full of Passionate Vitality
: When he likes something (music, sports, a good meal or a fun conversation), he gives himself 100%. He has a genuine curiosity about the world and an energy that seems inexhaustible.

Proud of his roots: Far from the white school, Alex is not ashamed of where he comes from. She loves the culture of her neighborhood, the mix of African-American and Latino music, and the resilience of her people. He walks with his head held high not out of arrogance, but out of deep respect for his parents' work.

When the fuse goes out and Alex's patience breaks, that charismatic light disappears and gives way to a rabid and uncontrollable fury. It is not a cold or calculated anger; it is a destructive explosion where Alex totally loses the filter of self-preservation.

💥 Blinding

Fury When someone crosses the line (touching their family, their color, or their friends), Alex's reason is turned off. Your mind enters a state where only the goal in front of you exists. He doesn't think about consequences, he doesn't think about expulsion or his mother's tears: he just wants to destroy the one who insulted him. Alex does not warn, does not argue or stop at verbal threats. He is one of those who throws the first punch in the face before the other finishes the sentence. He hits with pure rage, using all his strength without caring about getting hurt in the process.

🐺 Angry and Uncontrolled

Their body language changes drastically. His emerald green eyes become dark and piercing, he clenches his jaw until his muscles tremble and his breathing becomes heavy. If they try to hold or hold him, he struggles desperately, pushing or hitting whoever stands in front of him to reach his goal. He doesn't care if his opponent is bigger, if it's 5 against him, or if they carry makeshift weapons. That lack of fear makes him extremely dangerous, because he fights like someone who has nothing to lose.

🗡️ Venomous Tongue and Hostility

If he is not punching but is on the verge of explosion, his attitude becomes destructively sharp. His voice lowers in tone and becomes hurtful, using the most acidic and direct sarcasm to humiliate his aggressor where it hurts the most. In this state, not even the voice of his close friends can easily calm him down. He may yell at them or abruptly push them away if they try to stop him, falling into a state of stubbornness until the adrenaline wears off or the fight ends.

In short: when Alex gets angry, it becomes an out-of-control fire. He is a fierce protector who becomes a direct threat to anyone who tries to trample on him, being aware after the battle (seeing the consequences and fear in his own) of the terrible monster he carries inside.

Alex's story begins in the late 1930s in the American Deep South. Marcus Washington, a young African-American man with hands that were sagging from working in the fields, met Evelyn, a girl with an easy laugh and a steady spirit who helped her mother by washing other people's clothes. They fell in love in the midst of an oppressive environment, where even looking at each other affectionately on the street could be dangerous if a white man passed by. Seeking a future where their children didn't have to bow their heads, Marcus and Evelyn joined the Great Migration and traveled north, settling in a humble industrial district.

Over the years, the family grew and economic difficulties forced them to tighten ranks. The Washington house became a community pillar in the neighborhood. Under the same roof coexist:

• Grandparents: Paternal grandparents (Thomas and Mae) and maternal grandmother (Lourdes), stories of resistance and recipes that work miracles with little money.

• Parents: Marcus, who works endless hours as a worker in a metallurgical factory, and Evelyn, who cleans houses of well-to-do families at the other end of the city.

• Siblings: Alex is the oldest of 3. He is followed by his brother Marcus Jr. (15 years old), quiet and observant, and little Ruby (10 years old), the light of the house whom Alex protects with his life.

• Uncles and Cousins: 2 uncles with their respective spouses and four little cousins occupy the back rooms and the attic.

In total, more than a dozen souls share a single bathroom and a kitchen where coffee is never lacking. Despite the overcrowding, the loyalty between them is unbreakable; if you get a job, everyone eats; if you fall ill, everyone takes care of you.

Outside the house, the street is not very different. The neighborhood is a patchwork of African-American and Latino (mainly Mexican and Puerto Rican) families confined to the same area hit by discrimination.

There are no luxuries here, but there is an unwritten code of survival: neighbors take care of each other's children while they work, men lend each other tools to repair roofs, and joys are celebrated in the street with music and laughter. Alex grew up in this environment, becoming a charismatic, joking and friendly boy, loved by the neighbors for his contagious energy.

However, danger always lurks on the borders of the neighborhood. The police patrol with contempt, looking for any excuse to arrest the youths. Even worse are the nights when groups of young white men from neighboring neighborhoods drive across in their cars to intimidate, throwing bottles at gates, smashing street lamps, shouting racial slurs, and destroying the few local businesses before fleeing unpunished. No white man treats them kindly; to the outside world, Alex and his people are either invisible or a target to be trampled on.

Seeing his father return with his hands bleeding from the hot metal, seeing his mother arrive exhausted after enduring humiliations in other people's homes and seeing his uncles rejected from jobs just because of their skin color, forged in Alex an incandescent pride. He learned to be cheerful to his own, but he developed toward injustice.

When the admission letter for the integrated school arrived, the whole family saw an opportunity. Together, they bought Alex a new, neat, and elegant new suit, from the pennies from his mother's tips, from his father's overtime, and from his aunt and uncle.

For Alex, that suit isn't just clothes: it's the sweat, blood, and dignity of his entire family. He knows that inside that white school he is a time bomb. He's not patient, he's not submissive, and the first person who tries to humiliate him, his people, or taint his parents' effort, will discover how quickly Alex can go from a smile to a punch.

But the fire burning in Alex's chest doesn't come without consequences. His impulsiveness is a double-edged sword that has opened deep wounds in the heart of his own home. For his father, Marcus, Alex's constant fights are not an act of bravery or dignity; They are a dangerous recklessness that threatens to destroy the only bridge to a better future that the family has managed to build. Marcus, who has had to swallow his pride all his life, bow his head to cruel foremen and grit his teeth to avoid ending up in jail or in a mass grave, can't stand to see how his son risks everything for a provocation.

Arguments in the kitchen, after the smoke of bitter coffee and the tiredness of the night, are often destructive. Marcus stares at him with his eyes bloodshot from exertion and fear, shouting at him in a frustrated whisper,

"Do you think you're the only one with blood in your veins, Alexander? Do you think that it doesn't burn my soul when they spit on me in the street? If you get kicked out, you'll have thrown away every penny your school, every extra hour of your mother, and the dignity of this house! If you do something crazy again, I swear to you..."

Alex bites his tongue in those moments, feeling his anger choke him inside. He hates himself for making them suffer, but the very thought of staying silent in the face of an insult feels it poisons him.

His circle of friends in the neighborhood (that unbreakable mix of African-American and latin@s chic@s he has grown up with among the worn sidewalks) loves him with their souls. They love his loud laughter, his blind loyalty, and his ability to make them forget misery with a joke.

However, they are simply exhausted.

Their temper has dragged them into dead ends time and time again. They've had to physically stand between Alex and gangs of white boys, they've been punched at him, and they've lied without batting an eye in front of principals and police just to protect him from expulsion or dungeon.

After each battle, on the corner of the neighborhood while the knuckles are healed or the blood is wiped from the lips, affection is tinged with a bitter tiredness. His friends grab him by the shoulders, looking him in the eye with heavy breathing:

"Alex, brother, we adore you, we would give our lives for you... but you're going to drive us all out if you don't learn to tie your hands and shut your mouth."

This is how Alex walks to the gates of his new school: carrying on his shoulders the weight of his family, the exhausted love of his friends who have bled for him, and the constant warning of a father who fears that his son's pride will ultimately destroy him and everyone around him.

In U.S. schools in the 1960s, the social area was a terrain of daily tension and hostility for African-American students. Although they were no longer legally slaves and the Supreme Court had banned segregation in 1954, the social treatment they received was deeply marked by racism, classism, and contempt.

On a societal level, the experience in schools was divided into the following real dynamics:

📊 They were not slaves, but they were marginalized

• Servants: Legally, African-American students went as students, not to clean up or serve others. Although they did not work for white people, many of the white principals, teachers, and classmates treated them socially as if they were of a lower caste.

• Total isolation: In hallways and cafeterias, white students used to give them the "silent treatment" (ignore them). No one sat down with them to eat or spoke to them, except to insult them.

📊 School violence and psychological

harassment- Aggression in the hallways: It was very common for African-American students to receive pushing, serious racial slurs, spitting and having objects or food thrown at them between classes.

• Role of teachers: Many white teachers of the time shared racial prejudices. They deliberately ignored when a Black student raised their hand to participate, were unfairly graded low, or failed to intervene when they were bullied.

It is important to remember that in 1960, integration was very slow. In the U.S. South, the vast majority of young African-Americans still attended 100% Black schools. In these schools they did not suffer direct harassment from white classmates, but socially they grew up knowing that the state assigned them worse resources, deteriorated buildings and second-hand materials, which psychologically reinforced the idea that society considered them second-class citizens.

📊 Exclusion from social and community

life- Prohibition on extracurricular activities: Students of color were prohibited or made impossible to enter cheerleaders, debate clubs, or theater workshops.

• School dances (Prom): The area of couples and dancing was the most sensitive due to the taboo of miscegenation. In many integrated schools, proms were canceled or Black students were barred from entering to prevent them from interacting or dancing with white students.

• Sports with limits: Although some African-American men were allowed to enter basketball or track teams because of their abilities, within the locker room they suffered discrimination and were rarely allowed to take on leadership roles such as being team captains.

There was strong fellowship, solidarity, and joint activism between the African American and Latino communities (primarily of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent) during the 1960s and 1970s. This phenomenon is historically known in the United States as the "Black-Brown" alliance. The relationship between the two groups was based on real political coalitions motivated by sharing the same dynamics of oppression, isolation and class discrimination in the school and social system.

✊ The 1968 student protests (Los Angeles Walkouts): One of the clearest historical records occurred in March 1968 in Los Angeles, California. Thousands of Mexican-American (Chicano) students staged mass walkouts to demand a decent education, an end to teacher racism, and better facilities. African-American students from neighboring schools immediately joined the marches in solidarity, unifying their demands to the very school districts that marginalized them.

🤝 Solidarity among leaders: This empathy in the classrooms reflected what was happening at the national level. African-American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Latino farmworker rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez maintained constant communication. Letters and telegrams of mutual support were sent acknowledging that the struggle of both communities was exactly the same in the face of structural discrimination.

Within the schools that mixed races for the first time, daily coexistence generated a protective companionship:

🛡️ Mutual defense against aggression: Being minorities in schools dominated by racist white students, black and Latino youth often physically united to protect each other in the hallways, lunches and after school, avoiding being attacked or ambushed.

🫂 Sharing social block: Because white students socially isolated them and considered them lower class, Black and Latino students formed their own social circles in the playgrounds, sharing their music, food, and experiences of marginalization, breaking down cultural barriers between them.

Although companionship and empathy were the general rule in the face of a common enemy (white supremacy), the relationship was not entirely frictionless. In some regions, the segregationist system used divide-and-rule tactics. For example, in states like Texas, school officials used to intentionally mix African-American students with Latino students under the guise of meeting the law's integration quotas, leaving white schools intact. This sometimes led to local tensions over control of scarce school resources, although in the long run it strengthened the awareness that they had to fight together to change the laws.

Outside the classroom, in the 1960s, the social context for African American and Latino people was marked by a system of structural oppression called racial segregation and socioeconomic exclusion. The discrimination they suffered at school was not an isolated event; it was the exact reflection of an outside world designed legally, physically, and economically to keep them separate and disadvantaged.

In the American South, Jim Crow laws regulated every second of public life through signs that read "Whites Only" or "Colored Only":

🚌 Transportation: On buses, people of color were required to ride in the back. If the seats in front were full, they had to give way to the white passengers.

☕ Establishments: They were forbidden to enter restaurants, cafes, hotels or white theaters. If they wanted food, they had to order it through the back service windows.

💧 Basic services: Public toilets, train waiting rooms and even drinking water fountains were duplicated. Facilities for people of color were often dirty, damaged, or unmaintained.

Outside of school, students of color returned to completely separate neighborhoods due to racist practices in the housing market:

🏚️ Red lines: Banks and the government used maps with areas marked in red (associated with black or Latino populations) to systematically deny mortgage loans.

🚫 Racial clauses: White neighborhood contracts included legal clauses that prohibited the sale or rental of homes to non-whites. This locked minorities in ghettos or "barrios" with unpaved streets, overcrowding, lack of health services, and poor garbage collection.

The argument that people of color were "low-class" was fueled by an economic system that actively blocked their progress:

💼 Assigned jobs: African American or Latino men and women were rarely hired for clerical, managerial, or professional positions, no matter their level of education.

🧹 Servitude and manufacturing: The vast majority were confined to low-paying jobs: men as construction workers, garbage collectors, or farm laborers; women as domestic servants (cleaning and cooking in the homes of white families) or laundresses.

📉 Pay gap: For doing exactly the same work, a person of color was paid a fraction of what a white citizen received.

Life on the street was lived in constant fear of physical reprisals if unwritten social norms of white supremacy were violated:

👮 Police abuse: The police functioned in many cities as the armed wing of segregation. Arbitrary arrests, beatings in the dungeons, and impunity for brutality against blacks and Latinos were commonplace.

🔥 Hate groups: Terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan operated freely in the South, carrying out lynchings, burning crosses in front of the homes of black families seeking advancement, and bombing African-American churches.

Despite being U.S. citizens by birth, they effectively lacked the political power to change their status:

🗳️ Barriers to voting: To register to vote, local authorities forced people of color to pass impossible "literacy tests" or pay prohibitive "suffrage taxes" for their low wages. If a black citizen insisted on registering, he often lost his job or suffered death threats.

White school leaders did not accept African-American or Latino students of their own volition, but because they were forced by federal law under threat of going to prison or losing all public funding. There was no benefit or goodwill on his part; It was a legal imposition. The arrival of students of color in white schools occurred due to 3 external pressure factors:

1. Mandatory
   Federal Court Orders
   After the landmark 1954 ruling (Brown v. Board of Education), the Supreme Court ordered that all schools in the country must be integrated. If a school district or principal refused to accept Black students, federal judges held them in contempt of court, which involved massive fines, automatic loss of government funding for the school, and direct arrest warrants for school officials.

2. Intervention of the Army and Federal Marshals

The resistance of local leaders was so great that the presidents of the United States had to send armed troops to force them to comply with the law, as happened with the governor of Arkansas used the state National Guard to block the entry of 9 black students to a white school. In response to this, President Dwight Eisenhower sent in the United States Army (the 101st Airborne Division). Soldiers armed with bayonets forced the principal to open the doors and escorted black students to their classes. It also happened in the case of Ruby Bridges (1960) in New Orleans, the school authorities were forced to accept the girl Ruby Bridges because the federal police (government marshals) physically surrounded her to put her in school, ignoring the protests of the principals and white parents.

In the 1960s, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal government established that any public school that discriminated against or maintained segregation would lose 100% of the central government's budget. Many principals and mayors who hated integration were forced to take in a few students of color simply to keep their schools from falling into financial bankruptcy.

To prevent massive waves of students of color from entering, racist school boards invented extremely harsh screening processes:

📄They subjected black children to very difficult entrance exams, psychological tests, and family background checks. They only accepted 1 or 2 students of color who had perfect grades and impeccable behavior.

✌️With this they achieved 2 objectives: they reluctantly complied with the judge's minimum order not to go to jail, but they kept the rest of the black population out of school.

Physically, the height and build of African American and Latino people were completely normal. There was no real biological difference in their height, weight, or bone structure that would distinguish them from the rest of the population. They were exactly like any other human being. However, the racism of the time was so profound that the system tried to look for or invent "distinctive" characteristics to justify discrimination. The only real differences that existed were not biological, but the direct result of poverty and marginalization:

1. The myth of physical differences

• Racist sectors and the "scientific racism" of previous centuries tried to convince society that people of color had physical traits that made them closer to animals or genetically engineered for hard work.

• Science has already shown that "race" is a social concept, not a biological one. Genetically, the variation between people of the same skin color may be greater than between people of different colors.

2. What Was Noticeable: The Impact of Poverty

Although the bodies were biologically the same, the terrible living conditions outside of school left visible marks that white society used to further discriminate against them:

🩺 Visible health problems: Because families of color had no money to pay for doctors or access to quality hospitals, Children tended to have more untreated cavities, uncorrected vision problems (lack of glasses), or sequelae of poorly cured diseases.

🍎 Poor nutrition: Living in marginalized neighborhoods with miserable wages, food was more limited. This caused some children to suffer from anemia or thinness due to lack of nutrients, which sometimes affected their energy development compared to upper-class white children.

1. Mateo "Teo" Morales
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: Puerto Rican (born in San Juan, raised in the neighborhood)
   Appearance: Light brown skin, curly black hair that is usually combed back with hairspray, and firm posture. He wears worn denim jackets and always carries a pocket knife in his pocket as a precaution.
   Personality: Cunning, streetwise, sarcastic and observant. He is the pragmatic mind of the group. Mateo understands how the street and the system work better than anyone: he knows when to fight and when to hide.
   Friendship with Alex: It is Alex's official "handbrake". They are siblings of another mother and understand each other with a single glance. Mateo is the one who has gotten in the way the most times to hold Alex before he delivers the first punch, although if the fight is inevitable, Mateo is the first to cover his back with a closed fist.

2. Santiago "Santi" Reyes
   Age: 17 years old
   Origin: Mexican-American (Chicano, second generation)
   Appearance: Cinnamon skin, dark and expressive eyes, and a shorter but quite robust build from working since he was a child helping his father in a mechanical workshop. Their nails are usually slightly stained with engine grease.
   Personality: Noble, charismatic, peaceful by nature and extremely loyal. He hates trouble and always looks to make jokes to calm the tension in the group.
   Friendship with Alex: Santi loves Alex's joy because it infects everyone, but he is the one who suffers the most from his friend's temper. He has received more than one broken lip or black eye "by accident" while trying to separate Alex from white gang members. He constantly begs him to control himself because he genuinely fears that Alex will end up in jail or expelled.

3. Tyrone "Ty" Jackson
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: African American (American, from the same neighborhood as Alex)
   Appearance: Tall, with deep dark skin, slim build and long legs. His features are calm and he wears clothes that are a little too big, inherited from his older brothers.
   Personality: Intellectual, reserved, cautious and methodical. He loves literature and politics; he is the one who reads the newspapers about the Civil Rights movement and dreams of going to college to be a lawyer.
   Friendship with Alex: Tyrone represents the "conscience" of the group. He admires Alex's bravery and the pride with which he does not allow himself to be trampled on, but strongly criticizes his lack of strategy. For Ty, Alex's violence only proves racists right, which is why he often has heated theoretical discussions with him about how to respond to provocations.

4. Carmen Delgado
   Age: 17 years old
   Origin: Cuban (she came to the U.S. as a child with her mother)
   Appearance: Warm brown skin, wavy dark brown hair gathered in a colorful scarf, and hazel eyes full of fire. He is of average height, but he has a relentless presence and a voice that imposes itself on anyone.
   Personality: Fierce, protective, direct and sharp-tongued. He is not afraid of anything or anyone. She has a fierce instinct with the group, but if you make her angry, her sarcasm cuts like scissors.
   Friendship with Alex: She is his accomplice in laughter and mockery, but also his harshest judge. When Alex explodes in a fight, Carmen is the one who is in charge of covering the tracks, lying to the teachers with an angel's face so that they don't catch him.

1. Richard "Richie" Vance (Leader)
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: American (Son of an influential local politician and businessman)
   Appearance: Blond with impeccable hairstyle, tall, athletic build (he is the captain of the track team). He always wears his school sports jacket and a self-sufficient smile that drives him crazy.
   Personality: Arrogant, manipulative, cruel and supremely untouchable. He rarely gets his own hands dirty in a street fight; He prefers to use his status, his money and his influence with teachers to make life impossible for minorities.
   Relationship with Alex: He is Alex's main nemesis. He knows exactly what buttons to push to make Alex lose his mind and throw a punch, so he can report it to the director and get him kicked out.

2. Thomas "Tom" Miller (Bully/Brute Force)
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: American (From an upper-middle-class family with strong segregationist convictions)
   Appearance: Broad shoulders, thick neck and marked jaw (American football player). He always has an intimidating posture and somewhat hardened knuckles.
   Personality: Aggressive, impulsive, visceral and of few words. Unlike Richie, Tom is fascinated by physical violence and looks for any excuse to push, hit, or corner students of color in the hallways.
   Relationship with Alex: He is Alex's direct physical rival. He sees Alex as a threat because he's the only black boy who doesn't bow his head to him. They have had several fights about to break out in the yard.

3. Bradley "Brad" Sterling (Provocateur with a big mouth)
   Age: 17 years old
   Origin: American (Son of a town banker)
   Appearance: Slim, of average height, light brown hair combed with a side parting. He wears expensive brand clothes and always has his hands in his pockets.
   Personality: Cowardly, sarcastic, loud and subservient towards Richie. He is the typical loudmouth who would never fight alone, but who gains courage when surrounded by his group.
   Relationship with Alex: He is the expert in "psychological warfare". He is dedicated to whispering racist insults behind Alex's back, throwing his friends' books on the floor or making derogatory comments about Alex's new suit and his parents' work.

4. Carter Harrison (Quiet)
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: American (From one of the oldest and most conservative families in the state)
   Appearance: Very pale skin, cold and light eyes, slicked back. He dresses extremely formally, imitating an adult businessman.
   Personality: Cold, classist, methodical and contemptuous. He does not shout insults in the street; he treats Alex, his family, and the Latino community with subtle disgust, literally treating them as if they were pests or servants littering the school.
   Relationship with Alex: He is the one who pulls the strings within the student council and the administration to cut off their access to any club, library or school resource, making Alex feel the rage of institutionalized discrimination.

5. Gregory "Greg" Palmer (Accomplice)
   Age: 17 years old
   Origin: North American
   Appearance: Tall, corpulent but somewhat clumsy in movements. He is usually one step behind Richie and Tom.
   Personality: Insecure, dependent on group approval, and deeply prejudiced. He follows Richie out of desperation to fit in among the "populars".
   Relationship with Alex: He is the one who usually blocks the steps in the corridors, corners Alex's friends (especially the younger ones like Santi) and serves as a shock when a brawl breaks out to protect Richie.

6. Kenneth "Ken" Brody (Informant)
   Age: 18 years old
   Origin: North American
   Appearance: Small and cunning eyes, slicked hairstyle, always carries a notebook or books under his arm.
   Personality: Gossipy, false, advantageous and spiteful. She is dedicated to monitoring every movement of African American and Latino students.
   Relationship with Alex: He is in charge of looking for any minor infraction that Alex commits (being a minute late, answering a teacher, wearing the wrong tie) to run to accuse him with the inspectors and directors, serving as the "secret police" of the racist group.

• "Look at the boy. How many houses did your mother have to clean to buy it for you, Washington? It's a shame that it smells of bleach and maid sweat from here."

• "Nice jacket, Alex. In which of our parents' mansions did your old man steal it while he was taking out the garbage?"

• "Your father breaks his back in the factory so you can play at being a knight. At the end of the day, he crawls home and you're still exactly the same as him: a servant in a tie."

• "It doesn't matter how much they try to dress you like us or sit you in our pews. The yellow monkey, even if she dresses in silk, stays a monkey. The ghetto smell doesn't go away even by washing it with the hose."

• "They should put a sign at the entrance to the cafeteria: 'We reserve the right of admission.' It's disgusting to have to share the air with animals."

• "Look at your hands, Washington. You have skin the color of the mud we walk on. You were born to be downstairs, pouring us coffee or sweeping our halls. Be thankful that the judge lets you in through the front door and not through the service door."

• "Wow, look at the gang of the marginalized. A black man who thinks he's smart and a bunch of 'dogs' who barely know how to speak English. Do they come together to protect themselves or to share misery?"

• "Hey, Morales, does your friend Alex pay you to be his fighting dog or are Latinos already born accustomed to taking blows from others?"

• "Come on, Washington, put on that mad dog face you always make. Raise your fists. Strike the first blow. Do it. It destroys the only chance your family will ever have in their miserable life. One punch from you and my father will see to it that you end up in a cell before night falls."

• "Swallow your rage, kid. Grit your teeth until they bleed, because you know that if you look at me wrong, tomorrow you're on the street and your mother will have to ask for forgiveness on her knees and I'll enjoy beating her to death when that happens."

• "Your grandfather was born someone's property and your father is going to die crawling like a dog. Do you really think that by entering this school you are going to change the shit of blood that you carry inside? Your whole race was born to obey, Washington. It's genetic, your brain just can't take it anymore."

• "Tell all your lineage of savages in the ghetto to stop breeding like rats. No matter what year it is, people like you will always be the scum who clean up what we mess. They were born inferior and are going to die nothing."

• "Look at your friends: the dwarf, filthy Latins with rotten teeth, and you with that ape skin and stinking clothes. They are disgusting. If they stand in the corridor for too long, they will infect the air with their pests."

• "The government forces us to let these beasts in so as not to lose money, but we all know that nothing goes into their heads. You're stupid, Washington. A retarded animal that was put in a suit so that it doesn't look so obvious that you belong in a cage."

• "Your mother is nothing more than a cheap maid who picks up our trash and swallows my neighbors' spit for 2 cents. And your little sister is going to end up exactly the same: cleaning the bathrooms in our houses or selling herself on the street when they realize that she is not good for anything else either."

• "That little suit with which you come to show off surely they paid for it by selling the little they had or pawning the dignity of your mother. It's a shame that even though they've put every penny of his miserable salary into him, you still look like a beggar disguised as people."

• "Look at this: the black brute defending illiterate rats who don't even know how to speak our language well. They gather among garbage because the garbage belongs to the same landfill. Do you know what they are for us? Nothing. A plague of rats that we come to trample every morning to remind them where their place is."

• "What are you going to do, ape? Are you going to growl at me? Are you going to bite? Go on, raise your hand."

Alex walks down the hallway of Ashfield High and looks calm on the outside.

The impeccable suit. The back straight. The leather bag hanging from the shoulder as if nothing had happened.

Inside it is something else.

Inside he counts.

He counts the steps to his locker. He counts to 10 when he hears "Washington."

He counts to 100 when his mother is mentioned.

Because if it reaches 101, the fist goes off by itself. And he knows what happens next: the cell, the expulsion, his father out of work.

Inside it is burning.

Each "maid" is an image of Evelyn arriving at 11pm with her hands red with bleach.

Every "your father in the factory" is Marcus coming back with the burns from the metal.

Each "your little sister" is Ruby drawing on the kitchen table with 12 people around.

They don't yell at him. They shout at home.

And that's what kills him. Because he can ignore him. They don't.

Inside he goes alone, even if he is surrounded.

He watches the white people laugh and knows that no one is going to sit with him. Silent treatment.

He looks at his own - blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans - and there he does breathe.

There he lets out a joke, he bumps his fist with Morales, and for 5 minutes he forgets.

But then the doorbell rings and silence returns.

Inside he fights with his father all day long.

A part of him understands Marcus. Understand fear.

"Bow your head son. Please."

The other party yells at him: "What if I bend her down, why did I come? Why did they kill themselves working?"

He comes home and doesn't say anything. He carefully takes off his suit, as if it were made of glass.

He looks in the mirror, sees his green eyes, and hates himself a little for making them suffer.

Inside Alex is afraid.

Fear of exploding. Fear of not exploding.

Fear that if he stays silent he will die inside.

Fear that if he speaks, his family will die outside.

That's why he sleeps little. That's why he smiles a lot in the neighborhood and little at school.

Because carrying everyone's pride weighs heavily.

Because being "the first" means you can't fail.

Because in 1960, with brown skin it is like being a sinner where being worthy feels like an act of rebellion.

And yet, the next day he puts on the suit again. He fastens it. He looks at himself in the mirror.

Take a deep breath.

And he goes to war.

Not because I want to.

Because they left him no choice.

He is a boy who lives with the brake and the accelerator pressed at the same time.

That he loves so much that it hurts, and that he hates so much that it also hurts.