who whipped him to impress upon him the importance of never doing anything so foolish again.In another instance, Angelou describes an incident in which she had a terrible toothache from two abscessed teeth. Since her grandmother (whom Maya called “Momma”) had once loaned money to a white dentist, Momma decided to take Angelou to him to see if he would treat her teeth, despite the fact that white doctors did not normally treat blacks. The dentist refused, telling Momma that “he’d “rather stick [his] hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s” (Angelou, 160).In another instance, a group of “po’ white trash children” confront Momma at her store, taunting her. As Renee Barlow notes, “They were represented as clownish, dirty, and rather silly. On the other hand, Mama simply stood like a rock and sang the Gospel. Her beauty of soul versus their disgusting antics creates a powerful scene about the nature of the oppressed and the oppressor. Marguerite, meanwhile, lies crouched behind the screen in agony at the inability of her class to command respect simply because of their color. Then, as the scene progresses, she understands that in spite of the disparity of power between the po'white trash and Mama, Mama has won” (Barlow, 861927397.html). She has won not because she has outsmarted the white youths or even -- strictly speaking -- overpowered them, but because she has outclassed them.This is a powerful lesson for a child to learn, and one that would stand Maya in good stead all her life. Because of her color, she learned young that she would always be considered a second-class citizen in the white world. But that did not mean she needed to BE a second-class citizen. She grew up to be second-class to no one.Angelou relates another anecdote that occurred later in her life, in which she was able to stand up for herself and her autonomy. While she was working for a white ...
