Snapping Whips in Reno and They Won’t Quit
Enrique Hernandez looks into people in Reno who carry around whips.
The WhipperSnappers
If you decide to talk a walk through The Circle, in downtown Reno where skateboarders, high school kids, runaways and vagrants congregate, or really any area in the Biggest Little City, you might see a peculiar group of people swinging chains.
At first glance, they seem odd, just swinging chains around, slamming them on the floor, occasionally yelling, but delve a little deeper and the history of “WhipperSnappers” as they are sometimes called is actually very complicated and rich.
It’s hard to get specific details on who truly snapped the first whip.
OurTownReno did an interview with a man named Paul Espinoza who claims to be the one of the originators of this trend. Espinoza said he would crack his whip in order to warn other homeless member of danger.
Browsing local forums tells a different story. Many say it was just some crazy homeless man on meth cracking his whip at two o’clock in the morning. The trend quickly spread and now you can walk through almost any part of downtown Reno and spot a WhipperSnapper.
Despite good intentioned whippers like Espinoza, my research on WhipperSnappers would frequently yield descriptions of crazy unhoused people who may or may not be on drugs.
First Contact
My own account with WhipperSnappers falls in line with the latter description of the group.
First contact with a WhipperSnapper was when I was going through downtown and saw them whipping away.
Their clothes were raggedy, words were inaudible, movements erratic, and whips chain linked.
My natural response to this phenomena was to observe from a distance while avoiding contact at all costs, and as I walked by it the rest of the crowd in The Circle that day shared my opinion.
As quickly as they appeared the WhipperSnappers faded from my mind. Just a few weeks later though I was at work and a WhipperSnapper was walking in the street. Again my response was to avoid this raggedy woman in the street swinging her chain. It made me feel uncomfortable.
The Second Take Reaction
An interesting thing about journalism is how in the process of writing we can turn the mirror on ourselves.
I disregard this group as a bunch of loons, but have never had a real conversation with them.
While there is a fair share of loons out there, I would assume that there are also quite a few Paul Espinozas. While reading about Paul, or “George from Sparks” on Reddit one is reminded that these are people.
The treatment of WhipperSnappers is no different from the rest of the homeless population in Reno. Most of us, we avoid them and don’t make eye contact.
Most talk down on the homeless population and WhipperSnappers and wish that they could just up and disappear.
We completely forget that most of us are a few bad weeks from joining the population some long so desperately to get rid. If we stop for a moment though and really talk with these people we would find so much common ground that instead of being ostracized groups like the WhipperSnappers can be seen as a unique addition to the community, rather than an odd disturbance.
Snappers like Espinoza or George can be bright spots in the community as well and their whips can help others know about danger or make for a quick laugh. I’ve only listed two Snappers but there are countless more, each one with their own story and reason for picking up the whip.
