This Is My America

As the door opens, Quincy grabs Tracy’s hand and pulls her into a kiss. The security guard apologizes for interrupting and leaves the room. Tracy finds the hidden compartment which contains a notebook, a photo of the Beaumont family, and an SD memory card for a phone. Tracy inserts the card into her phone and amongst the hundreds of photos finds a series of photos from the Pike. In the photos, which taken on two Tuesdays in April before Angela’s murder, a group of white men is gathered around a fire pit. Tracy recognizes a few men from school in the group, including Chris and Scott. Quincy tells Tracy she should turn in the memory card and phone to Beverly, but Tracy knows this would alert Beverly to the fact that she did not submit the evidence in the first place. Before dropping her off, Quincy tells Tracy “Next time I’ll ask” (207) before kissing her.

Dean helps Tracy bring files from her father’s case into Innocence X’s new office. Steve asks Tracy if she can stay to answer some questions. As she and Steve speak, she notices a man in a white SUV parked across the street. He wears sunglasses and watches them through binoculars. Dean says he saw the same man the day before and as the three of them begin to exit the building to the street, the man quickly drives away. As he flees, Tracy takes a photo. Steve explains that the man could be a cop or even one of Innocence X’s adversaries.

Tracy worries that whoever was watching them might be the same person who killed Angela. She shows Angela’s phone, keeping the memory card, to Steve and shows him the videos and texts. Steve shows Tracy that day’s newspaper headline which reads “MANHUNT” (213). The article incorrectly states that Angela’s cell phone has been located.

Dean is angry that Tracy has hid so much from him lately and that she went to the Pike alone. Dean admits that his mother does not want them spending time together anymore. Dean and Tracy reaffirm that they want to continue being friends, but Dean worries that his mom’s racist views have been ingrained in him. Tracy feels betrayed to learn that when Dean first heard about Jamal, his first thought was “how could he do that?” (217), not that Jamal was innocent. Dean breaks down crying and apologizes for doubting Jamal, but Tracy realizes that even Dean is not immune to racist beliefs about Black people.

Sitting in awkward silence after their conversation, Dean and Tracy wait near Angela’s gravesite to wait for Chris, who visits Angela’s grave each night. When Chris arrives, Tracy confronts him. Tracy is anxious when she sees how angry Chris is that she is there. Chris accuses Jamal of murdering Angela and says that Angela did not care about Jamal. He says that Jamal is “just like his dad” (223). Tracy brings up the fact that Angela was only at the Pike the night of her death because of Chris and his friends. Chris is alarmed at the mention of the Pike but reiterates his claim that “Jamal is the reason she’s dead” (224). Tracy notes the difference in Chris saying that Jamal is the reason Angela’s dead, but “not that he actually killed her” (224). Before leaving, Chris admits that he saw Jamal with Angela only after she was dead.

Tracy goes to the police station to tell Beverly about finding Angela’s phone. At first, Beverly is confused because of the false report that the phone was found, and then angry at Tracy for not telling her sooner. Tracy tells Beverly that Chris admitted he saw Jamal arrive after Angela was already dead. Beverly says that even so, because Jamal ran, he still appears guilty.

Tracy goes with Dean to the graduation party at Mandy Peters’s house to try to gather information from her. Tracy enters the party to find Mandy and sees Tasha and Quincy on the back deck. Quincy again tells Tracy that it is dangerous for her to be there with a bunch of their drunk classmates who are still mourning Angela. Tracy ignores him to go find Mandy.

Mandy admits that she knew Jamal and Angela were seeing each other, but that she does not know who killed Angela, and that she does not think it was Jamal. Tracy tells her about the memory card and Mandy is surprised because she was trying to find it when she was cleaning out Angela’s desk. Mandy warns her to be careful, because “Angela is dead because of those photos from the Pike” (235) and what she uncovered. The girls hear sounds from inside the house. Tracy sees Quincy and Scott shoving and punching each other.

Scott sees Tracy and threatens to hurt her, and Quincy steps in to help. Chris comes in yelling “you people” (238) need to get out and that he is calling the police. Only the Black people begin leaving the party as Chris and Scott start to argue. Tracy demands to ride home with Tasha, even though she knows Tasha still has feelings for Quincy and is hurt by Tracy’s continued flirtations with him. Tracy tells Tasha that she and Quincy have history, and that he’s been helping her to find Jamal. She tells Tasha she isn’t trying to keep things from her but thinks about how badly she wanted to leave with Quincy.

The next day, Tracy shows Dean the photos from the Pike. He says the only odd thing about it is that all the men in the photos are from different social circles. Tracy searches the internet for anything that went on around the days the photos were taken. Tracy finds a reference to a Black Lives Matter peace rally march against a hate group that turned into a mob and resulted in the shooting of one of the peaceful marchers. Searching further, Tracy sees an image from the march that features Scott and Chris yelling at the protestors and holding a Blue Lives Matter flag.

As Tracy gets up to show Dean the photo, Tracy sees the man who was spying on them start heading towards Steve’s office. Dean grabs a shotgun and runs towards the loft. When the police arrive the man is gone, but he has tampered with the case file boxes in Steve’s office. Tracy and Dean tell Steve about the break-in, and Steve reveals that the organization that owns the car is Liberty Heritage for a New America, an ultraconservative organization with ties to white supremacists. Steve believes that the break-in means that Innocence X is onto something in Daddy’s case. Steve says that Daddy’s case is pending review for a direct appeal, but Tracy worries because there are fewer than 252 days until Daddy’s execution date.