Assignment task:
Please reply to this classmate on this discussion topic with up to 100 words
I chose "I Became Her Target" by Roger Wilkins.
This selection told the story of a boy who was new to a school where he was the only black student, which made him worried until his teacher helped him. He was bullied and tormented for being different when he first got to the school and people in their neighborhood didn't want, he and his family there, "...we ought to go back where we belonged" (Wilkins). Through the help and persistence of his teacher, he became known in the classroom as a smart child and progressively got stronger with his speaking.
The author's purpose I feel was to just tell a story and bring light to a sensitive subject that a lot of people of color may deal with. The audience in my opinion would be someone who might be dealing with the same situation and might look up ways to cope with these things. In that case, the reader would have come across this story while looking up those ways.
The author organized their information by first explain who they were and the situation they were in. He was new and was the only child of color in his school during a time where people were not so open and welcoming to the idea of being integrated. Throughout the reading, he proposed problems and then followed up with solutions and the way the teacher became a bigger part in his story. I feel he chose this way of organization because it goes in order of the events that took place. First, he began with his background, then the problem, the things that happened and how it made him feel, then the "hero" Deadeye Bean, who helped him solve the issues within the classroom he had. It made sense to do it this way because it's the order of how things happened.
The biggest portion of the reading I related to was being brand new to a school and having people not necessarily be welcoming. I struggled with making friends because I was scared of rejection too, like Wilkins. While I wasn't bullied like Wilkins was with the throwing of the rocks and mean comments, I wasn't spoken to or made feel important. However, I had a hero of my own and her name was Mrs. Ambrose. She was my English teacher and around the time of state testing she made it known to not only me, but the entire school that my state English EOC test score was the highest in our class and district. This brought positive attention to me and made my name known, just like Wilkins, "so that's how I became just another kid in school and Dorothy Bean became "Old Deadeye." (Wilkins).