onstantly getting depressed and talking about it with the whole brownie troop. On the other hand, after the two troops meet in the bathroom to fight, and the two troop leaders talk you can see the difference in white culture and black culture in our past. The black troop leader gets very upset with the troop and clearly shows her anger, while the white troop leader has a perfect smile throughout the whole conversation. Another clear difference that is significant in learning our society’s past is the way in which the white troop leaders is takes no real responsibility and puts it all in the faults of the black girls. The white troop leader says, “ ‘See. It could have happened. I’m not calling your girls fibbers or anything. It could have happened, see. Our girls are not retarded. They are delayed learners.’ She said this in a very syrupy instructional voice, as though our troop might be delayed learners as well.” (Packer, 99) Although the white woman takes a very slight amount of responsibility for the incident, she blames it all on the girls’ illnesses. The white troop leader is greatly looking down on the black troop throughout the whole conservation. She basically assumes that the black whole incident was cause singularly by the black Brownie troop. This is one very good example of how a text such as this can be useful in high school classroom. Rather than to have the student read about segregation and what life was like in the past through a textbook, a class can read a story such as this one. This will help students to get more of a real idea of what it would have been like to be black and the kind of discrimination in which blacks were faced with. It would be very hard to send a strong message of our society’s past problems without including stories such as this in our schools curriculum. Although I do believe that it is important for students to read and struggle with ...
