The next thing that Cassie learnt was from the Strawberry incident with Lillian Jean Simms and Cassie. A white teenager who got in a fight with Cassie in the strawberry was Lillian Jean. From that fight she had learnt a lot of thing like the slave trade and the things that her grandparents went through. She also learnt that the white people were still not treating the black people the way they wanted to be treated. They treat them almost the same way the black people were treated during the slave trade. She then knew why Mama made Cassie apologise to Lillian Jean. ‘It is something Cassie, white is something just like black is something. Everybody born on earth is something and nobody, no matter what colour, is better that anybody else’. She had learnt even after the Civil War and the Slave trade had ended, the way black people are treated by the whites never changed. There was still a fight about who were bigger and better, blacks or whites.
After the Strawberry incident Cassie wanted to take revenge for what Lillian Jean Simms had done. Lillian Jean and Cassie met again and falsely became friends. Lillian Jean told Cassie her most private secrets which Cassie was using to take revenge. Later Cassie fought Lillian Jean for what had happened in the Strawberry. If Lillian Jean didn’t say sorry, then Cassie was going to tell people that she, Lillian Jean, lost in a fight with a nine year old. So Lillian Jean apologised. ‘When we reached the crossroad, I waved goodbye to Lillian Jean and waited for the others’, ‘I clinched my fist behind me, and narrowed eyes in the Logan gaze, but managed to hold my tough’. This phrase showed how angry and furious Cassie was with Lillian Jean. I have learnt that Cassie never liked people that get away with anything, especially if they did something bad to Cassie herself.
The next incident was about the coat. When Mama asked for Stacey’s coat to shorten the sleeves of his coat, he had to admit that he lent the coat to T.J until he could grow into it. T.J was making fun of him by calling Stacey a ‘preacher’ because of the way the coat fit Stacey. Mama wanted him to go and get it back, but Uncle Hammer tells Stacey that if he is stupid enough to give his coat away, then T.J could keep the coat permanently; Stacey would not survive in the world if he lets people take things from him. ‘Seems to me if Stacey is not smart enough to hold onto a good coat permanently’. She has learnt that, to not listen to what other people say about your things even if it is not good.
The last incident was with T.J’s friendship with the older Simms brother whish leads him to be lynched. His family lived on Harlan Granger’s cotton plantation. He was unfairly blamed for killing a white man during a robbery; he and the older Simms committed the crime. Cassie has learnt how the white people were against the blacks by getting them into trouble.
Overall Cassie has learnt many, many things that happened. Putting all the incidents together shows that overall Cassie learnt a lot of racism, by the way white people treat the black people.
By Tharcika karrunavannan 9S
