Lost On 8 Mile

NOTE: References to races in this post are strictly metaphorical.

The film 8 Mile is based in an actual place in Detroit. The area where everything takes place is divided by a street that's become more of a state freeway than an actual road. The street is called Eight Mile Road. There are several roads that run from Nine Mile to Five Mile Road in blocks as you go down this area of Detroit.

The thing that makes 8 Mile Road special is that it is the clearly divisible line between rual suburbs and the upper class residents of downtown Detroit. You can literally be on one side of 8 Mile and be in a nice neighborhood, then cross to the other side of the road and see shambles and ghetto houses. To further make the point, 8 Mile also divides the main races that live downtown. The whites live in the north in the better half and the blacks live south of the road in the worse half. The site once hosted a deadly racial riot.

At this point in my life, I'm lost on that road. The road that divides white from black, so to speak. The line that divides glory and misery. The road that divides good and evil, light and darkness.

I've been on this road before, and it was easy to get off once I figured out how. I've been down 8 Mile so many times, it seems more like home than either side of the road. I know I have dark skin, and a dark heart. But I've lived on the brighter side before, and it was awesome. I think this time around I'm in for more riots than I expected, though. And it just doesn't seem like I'll get away with being a fence sitter again.

This is the place and this is the time where I have to make the choice once and for all: Black or white.