Summary

Chapter 5 allows the reader to hear more about Lula Ann’s childhood through her mother’s eyes. This chapter is a series of memories that Sweetness has about Lula Ann. The reader sees that Sweetness truly believed that she treated the child harshly to help her to cope in a mean world. She tells the reader that she had seen African American kids being picked on by young white boys. Toughening Lula Ann up at home would help her survive in a world where she’d be ridiculed because of the color of her skin. Sweetness admits that she “couldn’t see past all that black to know who she was and just plain love her.” Because Lula Ann was so dark-skinned, Sweetness claimed that she would fall prey to what she called “skin privileges.”

Sweetness flashes back to remember a different...