When No One Is Watching

“Five families have moved from Gifford Place in less than a year. Five doesn’t seem like much, but each of their buildings had three to four apartments, and the change has been noticeable, to say the least. And that doesn’t even count the renters. It’s gotten to the point where I feel a little twinge of dread every time I see a new white person on the block. Who did they replace? There have, of course, always been a few of them, renters who mostly couldn’t afford to live anywhere else but were also cool and didn’t fuck with anybody. These new homeowners move different.”

This quote describes the importance of the individual within a community. As Sydney notes, “five doesn’t seem like much” but even so, the “change has been noticeable.” A single person can uplift their community, and a single person can destroy it. Sydney’s note that “these new homeowners move different” is important because it foreshadows their intentions long before the Rejuvenation Plan comes to light.

“Our house feels like a prison, but our neighborhood is like something out of a movie. When I walk around Gifford Place, or even just watch from my window, I don’t feel crushed by the multi-car pileup of stupid decisions I’ve made. I feel like maybe this is a place I can belong, eventually.”

Theo’s perspective of his new neighborhood is important because it juxtaposes with that of his white neighbors. While his girlfriend Kim and others find the neighborhood dangerous and in need of more gentrification, Theo enjoys its familial atmosphere—despite his own presence threatening to change it.

“I hadn’t thought of them as real people. Even when I’d chatted with Mr. Perkins, even when I’d watched from my window or observed people during my walks, I hadn’t really been seeing them. It’s a startling realization, but to be fair, I’ve spent most of my life having to quickly categorize people as either threat or...something else.”

Theo’s realization that he sees his neighbors as “background characters” validates Sydney’s primary concern with the neighborhood’s recent changes: That the longtime residents will be dehumanized by those who don’t care to get to know them. Theo’s impulse is to categorize people as threat or “something else.” Cole uses this vague term (“something else”) to echo the white residents’ desire to “Other” people of color. Though Theo is not as racist as Kim, he is ignorant and must work on seeing his neighbors as people instead of props.

“‘You think a bunch of people sitting around planning activities to enrich their neighbors’ lives is a safety threat.’ I laugh a little but no one else does. I know I probably have a somewhat different view of safety than these three, given my background, but this is so comical I need to know more. ‘Are you actually worried that our totally harmless neighbors are plotting against you?’”

This quote captures the growing paranoia in Theo’s side of the neighborhood. The simple act of Black people gathering poses a “threat” to the white residents, with the latter failing to consider the irony that they themselves are gathering to conspire and gossip about their Black neighbors.

“What is the proper response to seeing a child arrested? Another child, the umpteenth child, when you’ve lived here long enough. And worse, arrested for something you can’t be sure they actually did, even if they get found guilty?”

This quote highlights a challenge common to Sydney’s neighborhood: The arrest and incarceration of Black people (mostly boys and men), often for unjust reasons. Though Sydney observes that this arrest is “another child, the umpteenth child,” she has never grown accustomed to it. She refuses to grow accustomed to it; Sydney is eager to fight for her community. This quote also emphasizes the white residents’ continual use of the police as a threat, an abuse of white privilege.

“Her laughter comes out in a peal that makes her face scrunch up and her eyes close tight. I don’t even care if she’s laughing at me. It sounds so much better than the being-ground-by-gears sound, and I want to make her laugh like that again.”

Here, Cole emphasizes the importance of human connection. Theo and Sydney act awkward until the former makes the latter laugh—revealing a new side to Sydney. This exchange proves that getting to know people allows them to open up and build community. This quote also highlights Theo’s attraction to Sydney.

“The first exhibition room we entered was an overview of how Weeksville had been founded—by Black men buying property during the Panic of 1837 so that they could be afforded the right to vote. It also talked about laws that hampered the Black community in Brooklyn, like an eighteenth-century law preventing Black people who managed to buy property from passing it on to their descendants.”

As Sydney and Theo research for Sydney’s historical tour, they discover laws that oppressed and hindered Black residents in Brooklyn. The more Cole mentions history, the more apparent its cyclical nature becomes (in Sydney and Theo’s Brooklyn). This quote highlights a law that prevented Black people from passing down property to their descendants. This alludes to the contract that prevents Sydney’s mother from giving her house to Sydney.

“ She smiles, just one half of her somehow still-glossy mouth lifting up, but she’s looking at me and it doesn’t feel like she’s across the room anymore. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this. Not attraction or desire, or not just those things, but understanding. Camaraderie.”

Sydney and Theo are both lonely. They have few friends and are spiraling from the stress of their pasts. Theo represents a larger enemy to Sydney, yet they still manage to connect. Part of this connection is sexual attraction, but the quote also identifies a deeper element to their developing friendship. It is difficult for both Sydney and Theo to find people whom they can talk to openly—which later culminates into the trust needed to combat the neighborhood’s rising tension.

“In all the times I’d moved in New York, I’d only thought about how safe the area was for me, not what my presence meant for people in the neighborhood. Not about what advantages I had that they didn’t. I was poor, too, after all, even though I had figured out how not to be, for a little while at least.”

This quote demonstrates Theo’s character development. Spending time researching Black history and forming connections with his Black neighbors has taught Theo to rethink his white privilege. This reiterates Cole’s message that understanding history is important to understanding our present. Theo’s character development also echoes one of the major problems with white privilege: Because white people don’t have to worry about their place in the world, they center their own experiences without considering those of others. Because Theo grew up poor, he has to actively seek out an understanding of how he still holds privilege.

“A police car slows as it passes on the street, and maybe I’ve watched too much Animal Planet but it reminds me of a predator scanning a herd, looking for a weak youngster to pick off.”

This characterization of a police car as a predator speaks to the neighborhood’s rising tension. The police car symbolizes a powerful hunter. At risk are the Black children in the neighborhood, who are villainized and arrested with little evidence.

“When I think of a Black community, the first thing that comes to mind—even if I don’t want it to—is crime. Drugs. Gangs. Welfare. That’s all the news has talked about since I was a kid. Not old people drinking tea. Not complex self-sustaining financial systems that had to be created because racism means being left out to dry.”

Theo has fallen victim to social constructs of race. American media often portrays Black communities through the lens of crime; without a nuanced narrative, Theo grew up believing in the constructed image of Black neighborhoods as dangerous. This quote emphasizes the importance of seeking out multiple narratives and practicing empathy.

“Josie laughs, too. ‘Sometimes you have soil that isn’t good for growing things in anymore. It needs time to become fertile again. So you cover it with the shit, and then you wait. You let the shit do the work, then you come in and plant your crops. My grandfather taught me that. His grandfather taught him that.’”

Josie’s gardening lesson is a metaphor for gentrification. In her and many other white residents’ view, Black neighborhoods aren’t worthy of growth. The gentrifiers cover the “old soil” by putting pressure, financial and emotional, on longtime Black residents. There is also an implication that the neighborhood’s recent vermin problem was planted by the gentrifiers as justification for their “cleaning up.” Furthermore, Cole evokes the history of slavery and white supremacy by having Josie’s gardening (her mindset) be a learned lesson from a long line of family members. This mirrors the passing down of tactics that oppress Black people.

“He doesn’t need to know about Drea. After that night, we never mentioned it again. And I told her if anyone ever asked, I would never, ever take her down with me, would deny it even if she tried to confess. But it’s been so heavy on my soul. And Drea’s, so I thought. But there’s that check.”

This quote characterizes Sydney as fiercely loyal. Despite her friend Drea’s betrayal, Sydney is determined not to betray her. She is eager to love and be loved, generous and protective of her family and friends. This makes her an easy character to sympathize with and root for—even in the face of a questionable secret involving her mother.

“I nod, waiting for him to tell me the thing that keeps me up at night: what an awful, evil daughter I am. How I failed her. Buried her like a dog, and didn’t even give her soul the chance to have her memory honored and celebrated. I’m not religious, but I wonder all the time if I’ve somehow damned her along with myself.”

This quote reveals that a guilt-ridden Sydney buried her mother “like a dog” in the community garden and is certain the two of them will never truly know peace. This secret wreaks havoc on Sydney’s mental health, as it has serious legal and emotional consequences.

“It’s the last sorry that breaks me. He’s said it a few times, but this one finally sinks in. I’ve gotten so used to apologizing for being too weak to carry my own burdens—I don’t know if anyone’s ever apologized to me for how heavy they are, even if they couldn’t do anything to lighten the load.”

This quote characterizes Sydney as vulnerable despite her tough exterior. She has spent so much emotional energy on supporting other people that she has neglected taking care of herself. With her mother gone, Drea missing, and her neighborhood rapidly changing, Sydney fears that there is no one left to help her. This quote foreshadows Sydney and Theo’s romantic relationship because it positions Theo as her only friend and support system. The quote also emphasizes the isolation that can come from both external and internal pressure.

“I’m not the only one who needs this right now. Our kiss is like two drowning people searching for a life preserver, finding each other instead, and deciding that roaring waves aren’t so bad if you can fuck in the lulls between them.”

When Sydney and Theo finally have sex, Cole shifts the nature of their relationship. The pair’s attraction culminates in a sexual connection that also demonstrates their level of comfort with each other. Despite her suspicion of Theo as a gentrifier, Sydney has become emotionally and sexually open with him. This quote also emphasizes the necessity of human connection in times of stress.

“‘What am I supposed to do?’ I get up and pace. ‘I’m not walking into a police station and announcing there’s an organized movement to kill Black people and steal our land. Even though it’s been happening in this country for generations and it shouldn’t be hard to believe. Can we even call this a conspiracy theory? I mean...that’s why the police exist in the first place. Of course they won’t help!’”

Here, Sydney identifies a major conflict that she faces but Theo doesn’t: As a Black woman, she cannot depend on the police for help. Historically, police forces were created to oppress minorities. In contemporary America, the police force is often seen as an institution that targets Black communities. The Black residents’ unjust encounters with the police and gentrification are not unique to just their neighborhood, and yet, this issue is rarely discussed and dealt with in full.

“I came back to Brooklyn to find home, and these bastards have taken even the comfort of the familiar from me. Taken my mother’s dignity, and my best friend’s loyalty, and my community. I can never get those things back, and they think they’ll get away with it because no one cares.”

Sydney feels lost to the many systems of white supremacy that don’t value Black lives. A neighborhood that should have been a respite from her painful past is actively being destroyed. While Sydney can never get her old community back in full, the novel’s end promises a way for her to reclaim her family.

“When we step through the front door, there are people gathered in the street and more arriving, the glow of the streetlights silhouetting them. Of course they’re out there. This is a neighborhood where people care about each other, and three gunshots went off in Sydney’s house.”

In this quote, Cole celebrates the communal spirit of the Black neighborhood. Everyone comes to Sydney’s aid when they think she is in danger. This is a level of support that Theo has never experienced. Though the Black community of Brooklyn is facing a powerful and influential foe, Cole emphasizes that they still have each other. Sydney may feel alone, but as long as she has her neighborhood, she will always have a shoulder to lean on.

“Earlier I was telling Theo how these things happen in cycles, white people clambering into a hood, be it the original Algonquin hood or closer in history, like Weeksville. If I’m right, what Paulette said makes this darkness even more frightening. Break and build. This is the breaking point.”

This quote highlights two important things—the first being the symbolic use of blackouts to intimidate minorities and pave the way for white control. The second is the cyclical nature of the “break and build” process. By breaking down communities, rebuilding, and repeating this cycle over and over again, structures of power ensure a lack of stability that keeps minorities in a constant state of insecurity. Again, Cole emphasizes the importance of knowing history. Because the elderly Paulette shared her experience with blackouts in the 1970s, Sydney is able to identify the current blackout as a critical “breaking point.”

“Gianetti suddenly looks annoyed when she should be frightened. ‘I’m tired of you people. You’re saying all this now when you weren’t even responsible enough to make your appointment on Thursday! Just like your mother, crying after the fact and expecting special treatment. If your mother wanted to keep her house she should have paid her taxes and not been so ignorant she fell for—’”

Cole uses the character of Gianetti, a lawyer, to expose the conscious and unconscious biases that many wield against Black people. Gianetti’s use of the term “you people” implies that she considers all Black people to be irresponsible. She embodies racist ideology when she blames Sydney and her mother’s struggles on them alone—rather than recognizing individual struggles as incredibly complicated. In calling Sydney’s mother ignorant, Gianetti fails to see how systems of racism prevent people of color from living their lives. Therefore, she represents countless Americans who succumb to the racist idea that Black people are solely responsible for their financial and social struggles.

“Easier. Easier, and a million times harder because these aren’t pixels on a screen. The people we’ve shot, we’ve killed, are real. Oh god, they’re real and somehow I can’t even make myself feel that anymore. I’m not a hardened killer—I think my brain has reached some kind of overload point and the choices are curl up or keep it moving.”

Cole identifies Chapter 24 as the point of no return. The climax of the story occurs when Sydney and Theo break into the abandoned hospital to put an end to the Rejuvenation Plan. Anything after the climax must contribute to the novel’s resolution of conflict. In this quote, Cole reveals that her novel’s resolution will result in casualties, despite Sydney’s guilt regarding the lives she’s already taken.

“I’m not calm as I lie on the gurney next to Theo—my heart is pounding, my jaw is locked, and I feel like if I blink too hard I might set off a full-on panic attack. I look calm compared to Theo, who, in typical white dude manner, is not pleased about being denied autonomy.”

This quote reiterates the difference in privilege between Sydney and Theo, despite their friendship and romantic relationship. As a woman of color, Sydney has grown accustomed to abuse; Theo is less familiar with losing his autonomy. This highlights the injustice and inequality that characterizes Sydney’s Black experience in contrast to Theo’s white experience.