Question

\our nigger’s back!\
i don’t know what shawn saw on my face—whether it was shock,
anger or a vacant expression. whatever it was, he was delighted by it.
he’d found a vulnerability, a tender spot. it was too late to feign indiffer-
ence.
\don’t call me that,\ i said. \you don’t know what it means.\
\sure i do,\ he said. \you’ve got black all over your face, like a nig-
ger!\
for the rest of the afternoon—for the rest of the summer—that is
what he called me. i’d answered to the name a thousand times before
with indifference. now, i was alive to it.
i couldn’t articulate how the name made me feel. shawn meant it
to humiliate me, to lock me in time, into an old idea of myself. but
far from fixing me in place that word transported me. every time
he said it—\hey nigger, raise the boom\ or \fetch me a level,
nigger\—i returned to the university, to that auditorium, where i
had watched human history unfold and wondered at my place in it.
the stories of emmett till, rosa parks and martin luther king
were called to my mind every time shawn shouted at me to move to
the next row. i saw their faces superimposed on every purlin shawn
welded into place that summer, so that by the end of it, i had finally
begun to grasp something that should have been immediately ap-
parent: that someone had opposed the great march toward equality;
someone had been the person from whom freedom had to be
wrested.

*feign – v. pretend

1. what does tara really mean when she tells shawn that he doesn’t know what the word means?
2. how is tara connecting shawn’s use of the slur to the people and events she learned about in

history class at byu?
*wrested – v. forcibly taken

Explanation:

Question 8

The word Shawn uses is a racial slur with deep - rooted historical and social connotations of racism, oppression, and dehumanization of Black people. Tara knows that Shawn likely only sees it as a derogatory name without understanding the long - standing pain, struggle for equality, and the historical trauma associated with it. She means that Shawn is ignorant of the word's historical significance, the harm it has caused to the Black community, and the fight for civil rights against such racial slurs and the discrimination they represent.

Tara learned about figures like Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King in history class, who were part of the civil rights movement against racial discrimination. Shawn's use of the slur makes Tara recall these historical events and figures. She realizes that Shawn's use of the slur represents the same kind of racial prejudice and oppression that people like Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and those who fought for civil rights (like Martin Luther King) had to face. The slur transports her back to the context of the civil rights struggle she learned about, and she understands that Shawn's behavior is part of the same system of racial inequality that the civil rights movement was fighting against (someone opposing equality, from whom freedom had to be wrested, just like in the historical struggles).

Answer:

Tara means that Shawn doesn't understand the word's deep - seated historical, social, and emotional significance (the pain, oppression, and struggle for equality associated with the racial slur), he only uses it as a derogatory term without grasping its full meaning related to racism and the Black community's fight for rights.

Question 9