Yoruba Girl Dancing pg 83-122

Summary

At the beginning of chapter six, Remi starts to feel lonely as she sits alone in her dormitory. Her matron, the person that is suppose to help Remi get familiar with the school, introduced her to Jessica, Sarah, Miranda and Anita. The name of the school is Chilcott Manor School. When the supper bell rang Anita tells the other girls not to touch Remi for if they do “The black comes off” (Bedford 86), and thus beginning the start of a long horror movie. The other girls start to talk about her because she is, in fact, the first African they have seen. The make fun of her speech, her skin, her heritage, and the fact that she may never see he parents again. While in French class, Mademoiselle, the French teacher, explains to everyone why people have different skin color and why a skin color won’t come off, thus ending the relatively short nightmare. She goes to Uncle Theo and Aunt Mavis’ house where she gets a little lecture about the difference between a ‘darkie’ and an African.

Quote

“‘Yes it does’, said Anita. ‘My aunt Jane said so. She told my brother that if he didn’t behave himself she would send him to Africa and the black would rub off all the people there onto him’”.

Reaction

The first reaction I had when I read this was a bad one, I am unable to write done due to its vulgarity. Then I started to think, this is how some people actually believe. It might be a small group of people, but some people actually believe that when you touch a person of color, the color rubs off on you. I’ve never heard anything like this before, so it came as a shock to me to here one of London’s finest to talk like this. I had to stop and think about this for a while because it was really…surprising.