Summary

Chapter 3 is called “Foreign Ground.”

The first part of Chapter 3 is Moore’s story. Moore and a friend, Justin, were spending the day in Manhattan, then took the bus back to the Bronx. They went to Riverdale Country School together, a private school. Moore’s mother worked multiple jobs so that her son would not go to the public schools with their gangs and drugs. John F. Kennedy had been an alumnus.

One of Moore’s friends, Paris, asked “How y’all like it up at that white school? (49)” Moore knew the school carried a stigma in his hood, so he answered carefully. He had been suspended for fighting recently. It was just some playful roughhousing when he hurt his friend’s head. Moore built the story up, saying that the kid disrespected him and got in his face. Moore’s friend...