"Heads of the Colored People" Nafissa Thompson-Spires is a whirlwind of a short story and ends in a place unimaginable from where it began. I thought, before the mysterious appearance of the police, when the incident was just Riley and Brother Man scuffling, that it seemed probable the misunderstanding could have been resolved through de-escalation and conversation. However, in our discussion, most of us came to the conclusion that we would avoid getting involved in or trying to break up altercations we happen upon. Evidently, people at the convention felt the same, but what would have happened if even one person at the convention, the presumably highly populated convention, stepped up to help?
Perhaps the people who passed by Brother Man but ignored the outstretched hand presenting his comic series? Perhaps the four people who had actually bought his comic series? What could we and the characters in the story have learned directly from Riley and Brother Man about the altercation had it been handled with more care and understanding instead of having their narratives be cut short? The narrator is generous in indulging us Riley and Brother Man's thoughts in the moments leading up to the fight, but consider what would have been possible had they been able to tell their own stories, in the first person 'I,' rather than through an omniscient narrator.
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