The following version of this story was used to create this study guide: Diaz, Juno. "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)." Drown. New York: Riverhead Books, 1996. 142-148. Print.

This story follows Junot Diaz's recurring character of Yunior, a young man who is originally from the Dominican Republic and who now lives with his family in a low-rent neighborhood of Paterson, New Jersey. Yunior narrates the story in the second person and the present tense. He tells the story of a hypothetical date between himself and a young woman, using various details from dates he has had in the past. Yunior waits until his family has left the apartment to see an aunt of his in a nearby town. He pretends he is sick so that he will not have to go with them. Once his family has left, he clears away various pieces of evidence of his family's poverty and their original life in a small village in the Dominican Republic.

Yunior's date eventually arrives outside his apartment building. She is in a car driven by her mother. Yunior goes out to greet the mother and attempt to make a good impression. After the date's mother leaves, Yunior and the date go to a nearby restaurant to eat. Yunior narrates various contingencies that one should take depending on the race and economic background of the date. On the way to the restaurant, Yunior and his date encounter Howie, a young man whom Yunior sees as his nemesis. He does not interact with Howie, as he does not want to fight in front of his date. Yunior and his date arrive at the restaurant. He says that if the date is biracial, one should feign interest in the date's interest in that subject.

Yunior and the date eventually return to Yunior's apartment to watch television. He says that the date might simply watch television for a while and then leave, or else they might make various sexual advances. Yunior narrates a hypothetical scenario in which he and the date have sex with one another and then converse for a short time afterwards. Eventually the date's father arrives to drive her home. Later that night, Yunior's phone rings, and though it is likely his date or his family, he does not answer the call. The story ends with Yunior placing all the things in his apartment back where they were before his family returns.