“Equal Opportunity” first appeared in 1997 in Walter Mosley’s critically acclaimed story cycle,
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned.Since then, it has frequently been reprinted and anthologized. The story’s events also comprise a central plot element of the 1998 film version of
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,starring Laurence Fishburne and directed by Michael Apted.
Mosley’s protagonist, Socrates Fortlow, is a 58-year-old ex-convict who is “starting life over again” after twenty-seven years of hard prison time for rape and murder. Eight years after his release from an Indiana penitentiary, Socrates is barely subsisting on the margins of South Central Los Angeles, collecting cans and bottles to eke out a meagre income. Living in a claustral “poor man’s room” not
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Citation: Chura, Patrick. "Equal Opportunity". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 March 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40538, accessed 21 November 2024.]
