Being a series of monologues that are seemingly unrelated, Fires In The Mirror is easy to get lost in and find the focal point of the play. However, without the beginning monologues, much of the impact of the play could be lost.
Before the "Lousy Language" monologue, we see pictures of racism and prejudice from both the black community and the Lubavich community. Angela Davis told of the way racism began in the race for colonization of European countries. Leonard Jeffries showed how racism was still very apparent in his life because of the way Roots was manipulated to be less of an impact for the black community than it really was. Letty Cottin Pogrebin told of the way that her mother's cousin, Isaac, survived the Holocaust because he didn't "look Jewish."
Each of these monologues shows the basis of racism or prejudice for the communities involved. Once we reach "Lousy Language," Robert Sherman applies the things we've already seen to the riots in Crown Heights. It's not directly applied yet; that comes later in the play. But both communities are mentioned in one monologue for the first time in the play. Without the previous monologues, this one wouldn't have as much of an impact. The descriptions of word use wouldn't have that basis of proof from the previous monologues to back it up.
These beginning monologues show snapshots into the lives of all the communities in Crown Heights so that a decision can be made without bias as to whether the driver of the car meant to kill the little boy or not.
This is the point I was just saying on another post. You pretty much covered what I agree with. The sense that all the beginning monologues before Crown Heights helps give a little backstory to both sides of the spectrum and where the prejudices sort of arise. I almost felt like even if she didn't use this particular event, just any event where two races had a clash it would be a similar set up. I also agree the monologues that also seem irrelevant to someone unfamiliar with script analysis would not understand how those little windows into each story allows us to be open to both sides of the story instead of immediately siding with one.
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