How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays

At Holy Family Catholic School, David Rozier invented the ritual of farting during Mass. One day, Rozier tapped Laymon on the shoulder, put his arm behind his back, and farted in his hand. He then shook the hands of faculty members and other students while Father Joe “rolled his eyes from the pulpit” (157).

Rozier reminded Laymon of his cousin Jermaine, who lived in Chicago. Rozier and Laymon, who looked very different from each other, had spent each day since fourth grade “calling and responding, daring each other to revise all the rules of Mississippi juvenile delinquency” (157). When they got called to the principal’s office, Rozier admitted to farting in his hand and spreading the gas. This was why Laymon started laughing during Mass, he reported. Laymon burst out in laughter again. A few minutes later, Laymon asked Rozier why he admitted to what he had done. He said that his grandmother and his coach told him that Rozier had to start being more responsible.

Rozier and Laymon got suspended. The two got spanked that night. They figured it was their “mothers’ way of keeping [them] out of Black gangs, Black prisons, Black clinics, [and] Black cemeteries” (159). This, Laymon now thinks, was their way of proving to the boys’ grandmothers that they, too, were responsible.