Early Memory The California Zephyr By Toi Derricotte

Racism is a very touchy and common issue in society today. Many people react differently to racism. Some people think that other races should strive for power. They think it should be a race to prove that any of the races can do whatever they want. Some people are more likely to promote this idea of competition amongst races. This type of thinking does not inherently promote understanding between people. Other people are more focused on equality and understanding instead of competition and conquest. In the section Early Memory: The California Zephyr by Toi Derricotte the narrator is invited to sit down and eat a meal with a person who feels bad about being racist after he realized the narrator was a black woman. The narrator decides the man will learn more of a lesson by declining his invitation to eat with him (). Going and eating breakfast with the man would be a better way to promote understanding and heal racial divides than just letting him feel bad as a punishment. First off, the narrator refusing to eat breakfast with the man will teach him a lesson. The lesson he might learn will be that he should be more careful who says racist things around. He may learn that the only real difference between black and white is skin color and perhaps he should not judge a book by its cover. He may

Whether a person is comfortable in this situation and how the narrator believes people learn lessons are both important variables that determine how this girl deals with this situation. Ignoring any outside variables, it does seem reasonable to think that sitting down with this man might teach him more than sending him away. The story from this excerpt of the book presents an interesting opportunity that is not presented to many people. The narrator should have taken the opportunity to help this man learn why what he believes about African Americans is wrong instead of sending him