Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine

    "Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine" by Amiri Baraka a short, fictional story about the racial tension living in Dothan, Alabama as a African American. It was very obvious they were not treated fairly in this racist state. They tried to run them out you see this in the beginning of the story: "The store is burning, Tom. They have burnt your store, Tom. What does it mean? Is the burning another vibration? Interpret this one, Tom. Let your unborn grandchild know what his dead, whistling grandfather thought of the burning. If I were you, Tom, I would have cried. Did you cry, Tom? No, I suppose not. Not with the vibration still moving the ground in front of you". ( Baraka 1)

    Baraka uses the word "vibration" throughout this short story. Can it mean his emotional state or the atmosphere, and how it is felt by others? This story takes you on a journey from Dothan, Alabama, to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and finally Newark, New Jersey. You see the struggles they have overcome from their store being burnt down twice in Alabama, and starting a new life in Pennsylvania where they are more at peace and then moving to New Jersey and owning two stores. Baraka's journey shows the struggles his family has been through and how they have conquered  every hurdle they were given. 

    This short story is very political as is his poetry it deals with a lot of racial discrimination, and how African Americans were treated unfairly, it deals with struggles and overcoming them, power and music. The impact of this story is in the witnessing, the looking back, the looking forward, the emptiness of loss, and the fullness of knowing Baraka was a witness to it all. It is through witnessing that we provide history with value.