The graduation in its entirety was relatively conventional and predictable; we dressed in the traditional caps and gowns, received our diplomas and moved our tassels from right to left, it was not a necessarily extraordinary experience. However to my childhood best friend from Weston, Connecticut it was astonishing, “I can’t believe how many black teachers and students there were” she whispered to me after the ceremony. Speechless, I did not reply to her remark. In the moment I was not sure if I should react with anger or with equal astonishment. Thinking back now, I understand that it did not come from a place of contempt, but rather genuine surprise. There is still a tremendous amount of social segregation within our culture, something I myself was not conscious of until that moment. Yes I was aware of the social injustices in the world and the systematic oppression in place, but I had separated it so far away from my own experiences that it came as a shock that someone I associated with could be such a conspicuous perpetrator of implicit …show more content…
By purposely avoiding categorical identities she creates a sense of insufficiency amongst the reader. It speaks to both the importance of race in society and also with the assumptions and images associated to our rigid categorizations. That fact that we as the reader have such an overpowering urge to classify the two major characters is an indicator of how race is still relevant. In this instance we are given a literal circumstance where race is not present and all we want to know is the color of the two girls’