Biss is able to intertwine the histories and stories of the creation of the telephone with the use of them for lynchings. To me, this was a very interesting take on both connection and history of racism. Traditionally, telephones and telephone poles were created with the intention of connecting people over far distances. Obviously this also means we became connected to those unfamiliar to us. The use of poles for lynching is ironic in this way, why kill someone for the color of their skin on an object with the purpose of connecting everyone? The use of these for lynching is something that I was able to take away from this, as I never knew they were used for that intention. Biss tastefully describes and uses both narratives to show the relationship between human connection and racism.
Biss explains that the popular children’s game, Telephone, “depends on the fact that a message passed quietly from one ear to another to another will get distorted at some point along the line” (Biss 3).Surface level, this is a harmless game where silly phrases will get jumbled and mixed down the line. Biss uses this to explain a larger topic. More often than not Black men would be lynched for minor mistakes and sometimes under false accusations. Biss describes it as, “black men were lynched for crimes real and imagined, for whistles, for rumors, for “disputing with a white man,” for “unpopularity,” for “asking a white woman in marriage,” for “peeping in a window” (Biss 3). This quote explains the idea that accusations become misconstrued or in probably most cases, are false to begin with. Telephone is used as an analogy to describe this.
My interpretation of the essay changed after my search because I had no clue she was Caucasian. Although you would think this doesn’t matter, I believed this was written in first person by an African American woman. It changes the way I interpret this because it again proves that the color of your skin does not matter. Whether it is written by someone who is black or white does not take away from its meaning, I simply mean my interpretation was different in more of a surface level way.
