BARS: Breaking a Racial Stereotype

Eighteen-year-old white-boy suburbanite Jay Charles receives a crash course on culture in the New Jersey jail system that high school didn’t prepare him for. Jay’s fast money and notoriety land him in the hands of the police, opening up to him a world that starkly contrasts the difference between the urban and suburban, the good and the bad, and the black and the white. With no way out Jay has to quickly figure out who to associate with and how to survive and defend himself in a world so different than the affluent suburbs he hailed from. Drawing from his trials and tribulations, unique interactions, and a near-death experience, Jay’s stripping of the soul testament helps explain the reasons we treat each other the way we do, the misconceptions of the urban youth, and why he believes the suburbs display an emptiness of spirit that supports conformity, control, and a fear of reality, a fear that pillars the unspoken race war still going on today.