Skin Color In Reginald Mcknight's The Kind Of Light

With Reginald McKnight's The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas, Clint Oats is not only a new student but he’s also “colored”. Due to his skin color, others around him think profoundly little of him, which pushes him to be victorious. Although his actions show that he can keep up with his classmates, the other two “colored” children make it difficult for him to be taken seriously. While he arranges every effort to show that he cares for his education, the other two children form no effort at all. As a result, Clint feels as if he has to put in extra work not only for himself, but for the other two children in the class. Looking, speaking, or acting in a “different” way from what others are used to make it harder for people to be accepted for the way they are. When I was a high school freshman one of the classes I had to take was Spanish. I for one wasn’t looking forward to this class because I am a Mexican-American who grew up in America in an English speaking home. Although I was born here, my father and his parents are from Mexico. They struggled in life and decided to better themselves by coming to America. Even though I am Mexican I never had to speak Spanish because

Whether that was at school, church, or family gatherings there was constantly someone coming up to me speaking in Spanish. When it came to reading the examples out loud in Spanish class, my teacher expected her “native” students to set the example. However, I for one can’t roll my tongue; therefore, not being able to pronounce the Spanish words correctly. As a result, I would purposely mispronounce the words in error to make my point to the teacher that I couldn’t read Spanish. This repeatedly was addition example of not being a “true” Mexican in the eyes of my teacher. Thus, just like Clint, both our teachers expected us to talk in a certain way; however, we both ended up stunning