5-14-99 Evaliz Rosado
Chapter 10
In this chapter James talks about when he was in school. James went
through the same thing that his mom went through. Nobody liked him
either. It’s a shame that he had to travel so much in the
morning to get to school. I was laughing when he said that when the
teacher used to talk about “Negro History”, some kids used
to say, “James is a nigger!” It was funny because he
didn’t do nothing because he was shy but if it were one of his
brothers or sisters who were being laughed at, they would have found
the people who were making fun of them and bum-rushed them. Rachel
got so mad when James said “What’s tragic mulatto?’
That got me thinking about what it means because I don’t know
what it means.
It was funny when James brother played a trick on him. He put James
in a closet and locked him in there. Then James called out Billy a
few times because he was so scared. It’s messed up that
James’ sister, Helen, ran away and came back five years later
with a baby girl. It happens so much in the world that it doesn't
even shock me. There’s always one in the family that it happens
to. It’s a shame that Richie, James’ brother, was thrown in
jail. The cops were racist and didn't want to believe that the money
Richie had really were from a loan. The part where Ruth fought to get
back the money from the rotten milk reminded me of my mother because
she does that also.