Summary Of Dalton Conley's Hony

Honky, by Dalton Conley is a memoir discussing being white in the predominately black, and Spanish projects, in New York’s lower eastside. Typically white in America, is the power race, but not in Dalton Conley’s life. I would equate Dalton’s life to a science experiment. What happens when you throw a middle class white kid, with artistic parents, into a housing complex with a bunch of poverty Blacks, and Mexicans? Dalton’s curiosity, and unawareness provides him a surprising journey through issues with race, and class in America. Dalton’s life begins by kidnapping a black baby in the grocery store. He had just found out he was about to become a big brother, and was adamant about having a sister. So by kidnapping this baby he then would acquire …show more content…
It was such a problem that they didn’t even have a class for him. It was divided into three classrooms, Black, Puerto Rican, and Chinese. They eventually chose black where they education was lower, they cracked mama jokes, and receive corporal punishment. Well, at least all of them but Dalton. He never understood this, and would even pick fights to see what if felt like to receive this type of punishment, he just wanted to fit in. The teacher would never touch him because it would have been considered crossing the racial line. “We know that white parents spoil their kids, he said, so she doesn’t strike Dalton.”(Page 47) Dalton eventually transferred to the Chinese class where although it wasn’t as violent, and he couldn’t understand a word, but felt slightly safer. This would be the end of Dalton’s journey in this school, where the color of your skin was the most important thing. He understood that the color of his skin meant differential treatment. Either you were black, or not. If you weren’t white, then you were treated different, and all the other kids picked up on this. “Once, you weren’t a Blanco it didn’t matter what your skin color was in P.S.4.”(p.