Ruth Jackson

Ruth is a black woman who works as a labor and delivery nurse. She is a skilled nurse with some 20 years of experience when the Bauer baby is born. She loves her job and prides herself in providing what her patients need, sometimes even without them knowing their needs.

As a child, she has the advantage of being treated well by the wealthy family that employs her mother. Through that connection, Ruth learns more about how wealthy whites live and act. She is intelligent and gets a scholarship to an elite private school. She goes on to earn a nursing degree from Yale.

Whites treat Ruth differently than they would treat a well-educated, professional white woman. Blacks also treat her differently because she lives on the fringes of white society. She is skeptical of her white friends, always suspecting that they are not really friends but are...