Summary

The narration sets the story in the late 1990’s, at a time when “you could be whatever you wanted – someone said that on the news”, and when “Fatima felt ready to become black, full black, baa baa black sheep black, black like the elbows and knees on praying folk black, if only someone would teach her” (65). Fatima is described as feeling “like a sort of colorless gas” (65), not feeling really present, or noticed, or noticeable.

The week before she met Violet, the narration then says, Fatima got sent to the principal’s office for reacting angrily when a white boy got a positive reaction from their classmates for reciting a black-friendly poem, while she got barely noticed for doing the same thing. According to the narration, the boy had a history of adopting black culture, and being popularized for...