Reading Response On "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans"

Expensive Air Jordans are wanted and sold all around the world and teens will go through all kinds of measures to get them. The poem “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans” by Reg e. Gaines is about a teen who kills another innocent teen just so he can have that teens Air Jordans to look good for himself and in front of his friends. This poem makes me think about murder and theft in the world and how it can happen because of peer-pressure and selfishness.

            Part of why this teen, or speaker, did what he did was because he wanted to look good in front of his crew or posse. The other reason is because it made him feel good about himself, it raised his self-esteem: “and the reason I have to look real fly/well to tell ya the truth man I don’t know why/I guess it makes me feel special inside/when I’m wearing fresh gear I don’t have to hide” (Gaines 13-16). This quote shows how the speaker feels and thinks about himself. It seems as though he doesn’t really care too much about anything else but what he is wearing and how he looks. He doesn’t only care about how others see him, he also cares about how he sees himself.

            When the speaker kills for these shoes one can just see how selfish he is. This quote is from after he commits the crime, “the very next day I bopped into school/with my brand new air jordans man was I cool/I killed to get them but hey…I don’t care/cuz now…I needs a new jacket to wear” (Gaines 53-56). One can see how he has no remorse about what he just did, he just moves on as though nothing happen. Not only does he not feel any remorse or regret, he is already thinking about the next thing he needs which he is probably going to kill to get. He literally states in the poem that he does not care, he does not care that he just killed another man for just some pair of shoes. All of this was caused by peer-pressure and selfishness.

            This poem also gives the readers a flash of reality and that murders and thefts of this kind unfortunately really do happen. An example in the poem of this murdering and theft is, “while laying there dyin all he could say was/please…don’t’ take my air jordans away…/you think he’d be worred about staying alive/so I took off with the jordans there were tears in his eyes” (Gaines 49-52). There is a lot going on in this part of the poem and one is the irony. After this teen get shot, as the speaker says, one would assume that his last words would be more of mercy but all he really asks is for the speaker to not take his air jordans. Another thing I noticed was that this relates back to this thirst for air jordans. This want and need for air jordans is shown when there are these two teens, one on the verge of death and he only cares about the shoes and the other killing for these shoes. This just shows how much people now a days want air jordans and other clothing in general.

            This text makes me realize that our world is no where near a perfect world and that there are people out there who have no respect or care for others. All these people care about is themselves. This text also reminds me of where I live because these kinds of things happen all the time in neighborhoods I have been in and that are around the corner. I think that whoever reads this poem should really take a moment to reflect on this reality and think about this the next time they by a pair of shoes or clothing.