Character Analysis: If You Come Softly

Imagine this: you are living in a discriminatory world full of people who do not understand you, and choose to judge you by your differences instead of getting to know you. If you are even the slightest bit different. The slightest distance from ordinary, you are judged. You do not get to fight for them to know you, because as soon as they place stereotypes on you. They decide who you are supposed to be. Who you are supposed to fight for. Who you are supposed to fall in love with. In this world, it is not up to you. In this world, you have the choice to let it define you, strengthen you or destroy you. Most of the time, you will be judged for being different. Nobody is the same, and nobody is perfect. Under those circumstances, people are

As a result, they are barred of their identities. Jeremiah, a 15 year old black boy in a discriminatory neighborhood, attended Percy Academy to play basketball. A standard image placed on people of color are that they are not very smart and do not care about school. Miah did not choose to be black, but he was still overlooked. This affected Miah when he was placed in “‘remedial history. School made a mistake.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘They do stuff like that all the time, I bet.’ ‘Yeah-- it just seems like more than a coincidence when it happens to me. Like what made them think I needed remedial anything. Nobody tested me. Nobody asked me. They just threw me in it and looked surprised when I knew it all. I mean, it makes you wonder--- is it my hair?’ He smiled. I kind of half smiled, not sure what he was getting at. ‘Or the melanin thing?’ The melanin thing. I played with the sentence for a moment in my head and frowned. The world was like that a long time ago” (Woodson 76). This results in him feeling stupid and angry. He felt as though he was not respected and just wanted to be treated the same way anyone else would be treated. Rather than test Miah, the school administrator’s were quick to assume that he was stupid and deserved to be in a remedial history class. An injustice was served when his identity was taken

Soon thereafter, Miah is involved in an interracial relationship with Ellie. Ellie is a 15 year old Jewish and white girl, and comes from a family that does not respect her relationship choices. Like Ellie’s parents, the people Miah and Ellie are surrounded by were very judgemental, so “Miah had to lean into me to speak. He smiled and touched my cheek. People stared, but we made believe we didn’t notice. People always stared. I feel like I’ve grown an extra leg since we started going out, Miah said once” (Woodson 153). The extra leg is used as a metaphor because people often stare at them when