One Crazy Summer Racism Analysis

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia was a novel that I found myself having a hard time connecting to on a personal level. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are three young African American girls that are being sent to spend time with their mother that left them when they were very young. During their time with their mother, they go to a center and a summer camp where they learn about and get involved with the Black Panther Movement. Dealing with being an outsider when thrown into the life and social status of their absent mother and learning, facing, and experiencing racial discrimination; it was not easy for me to relate to these girls and their story. The novel starts by saying “good thing the plane had seat belts and we’d been strapped …show more content…
Cecile sends the three girls every morning to a place called the Center. There they have breakfast and then after they stay for a summer camp. At this summer camp they are “learning to become Black Panthers,” (p 70). This aspect of the story is where I face another disconnection. Growing up and even true till this day, one thing I never had to deal with was any issue regarding my race/racism. Delphine says at the Center “we were being taught our rights as citizens and how to protect those rights when dealing with the police,” (p 121). Not once as a little girl did I have to think about my rights. If I saw/talked to the police I never had any fears. Delphine and her sisters had to grow up being careful because of their race and as Sister Mukumbu stated they had to “think about [their] part in the revolution,” (p 72); I grew up the exact opposite. At one point in the story the three girls take a trip to San Francisco. While there they stop at a gift shop and Delphine notices that “the man behind the counter had his eyes on [them] really hard,” (p 164). She realized he was staring at them because her and her sisters “were black kids, and he expected [them] to be in his shop to steal,” (p 164). This is another part of the text that further implies my disconnection. Not once in my life was I stared at in fear of stealing something because of my …show more content…
Cecile does not have a lot of money, and the only money the girls have while at Cecile’s is the money their Pa gave them. Growing up I was lucky to be able to live in an area that was very nice and considered home to those in a higher social class. Cecile sends the girls to the Center for the breakfast program. Delphine notices “a line of hungry kids waited for breakfast,” (p 62). As a child I never had to worry about not having food available. I never had to go to a place like the Center where they had a breakfast