We Are Not Like Them

Jenny Murphy is the daughter of a single mother and has never left Philadelphia. Angry about her rocky childhood, Jenny fiercely craves stability, and her husband, Kevin, provides her with that. Jenny is pregnant with her first child after she and her husband had trouble conceiving. After a miscarriage, she is anxious about keeping this baby safe. Jenny and her husband Kevin are over $30,000 in debt from trying to conceive through IVF and borrowed money from Jenny's best friend, Riley, for the last round. Jenny was desperate and took the money, even though Kevin didn’t want her to.

After graduating high school, Jenny worked as a waitress and didn’t go to school. She recently gave her office job notice, as it makes more sense for her to stay home. She doesn’t love that her husband is a police officer, and she has never bonded with the other officer wives. Not close to her family, she spent much time with Riley’s family growing up, as her mother was in and out of town with different boyfriends frequently. She thinks of Riley’s grandmother Gigi as her grandmother. Often, Jenny was the only white girl and was the exception when Gigi said, “you can’t trust white people” (1).

Jenny is at the end of her pregnancy when Kevin is involved in the killing of an unarmed Black boy while on duty. Jenny immediately turns to Riley for support, as she always has, but this time Riley is initially unable to support her, dealing with too many of her own feelings about the boy’s death and about Kevin’s actions. Up until now, Jenny has not acknowledged the difference between her experiences and Riley’s brought on by race, and Riley has not discussed the subject with her. However, with the birth of her son and amidst the intense emotions surrounding the boy's death and the trial, Jenny and Riley find a way forward, learning to communicate openly with one another.

Justin Dwyer is the 14-year-old unarmed boy Kevin Murphy and Travis Cameron shot. He was walking home when Cameron wrongly identified him as the suspect in a recent burglary. He reached in his pocket to pause his music and was shot. He didn’t like to step on ants, he had stinky feet as a baby, and his favorite food was chicken tenders. He had recently spent his allowance on a polo shirt he never got to wear and was listening to Meek Mill before he was shot.

Gigi Wilson is Riley’s grandmother, named Gigi by Riley when she couldn’t pronounce the word grandma. Gigi is a force in Riley’s life and connected to the past. She is very influential to Riley, who frequently hears Gigi’s voice in her head, guiding her even after she has died.

Kevin Murphy’s father and brother are both police officers, which is why he decided to join the force—he told Jenny that it was his “dream.” He has “bright blue eyes and a headful of floppy curls” (27). Ever since he joined the force, he has kept more and more of the horrible things he sees to himself, not sharing with Jenny. Before the force, he worked for Comcast, which was part of the draw for Jenny—“safe, stable, and boring” (27) and, as Riley describes him, “simple, basic, vanilla, chinos-wearing Kevin” (21).

Kevin’s involvement in the killing of an unarmed Black boy is the catalyst for the story. While Kevin’s character is relatively flat—we only know about the conflict at hand—his handling of the death and his decision of whether to plead a deal are key to the story. Kevin decides to take the deal, a decision that gets him out of jail time, allowing him to be with his newborn son, but that also requires him to leave the police force. At the story’s end, Kevin sends a handwritten letter to the boy’s mother explaining that he will one day have to answer to his own son about what he did.

Shaun Wilson is Riley’s brother and serves as a foil to Justin. Riley often mentions that it could have been her brother who died. Shaun also has had trouble with the law, and after punching a white boy at college, he has a felony charge and lost his soccer scholarship. His legal troubles have left his family with financial troubles, and he has had trouble finding work because he has a record.