“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is a story narrated by the first person who explains his life in the inner part of New York City. The story gives the reader a chance to see black children who live with a poor background, no money, and no education. The story shows the lives people lived in the early seventies following the civil rights movement. It was during this time that wealth imbalance came up.
The wealth was divided based on race, and color, which means the white was more prosperous than the black. In passage two, the author brings two themes, which are materialism and social inequality. The discussion here will be on how social inequality exists in passage two of the story. The way a black child is struggling to get the most basic needs in the US (Wright 14). The existence of economic inequality and how New York changes the story of the civil rights movement. It is evident from the story that the child does not know much about money. For example, when she gets little coins, she celebrates so much and forgets everything.
During the early nineteenth century, black leaders such as Paul Cuffe and Martin Delaney said black Americans would never achieve true equality. A rich woman gives a penny to a poor child, and the child sees the money as gold. Due to the poverty level of the child, he thinks his problems are over. Racism also prevails in the passage where the black child is seen as a retarded living thing (Conor 78). The presence of economic differences between the black and the white was due to slavery that existed then. The black people were not seen as the native pioneer in the United States. Several black people came to the US as slaves, which has contributed so much to the economic rivalry and social inequalities.
When activists speak of equality, they mean giving each person a chance to live their life the way they want. Equality is never associated with discrimination and rivalry over who is better than the other. In the story “The Lesson,” Sylvia is not afraid to narrate in an African American dialect. Sylvia lives in the New York ghetto, and she is a working-class black child about twelve years of age. The dialect shows how she is proud of her ethnicity. Bambara celebrates the use of African American Vernacular English to celebrate the black people’s experience. When this child meets with the rich woman, the author shows the unequal distribution of wealth in the United States (Lewis 23).
The scenario represents the lives of black people in the New York ghetto (Lewis 48). There is unfair distribution of resources in the US, specifically in New York. When someone stands up to be who he is in a crowd of people against him that is braveness. Such people can fight so much for equality and inclusivity in their jurisdiction. In the story, the twelve-year-old child is not afraid of mistreatment by the people when they realize she is an African American. She proudly shows everyone she is from the ghetto, and that she is a black American.
The civil rights leader fought for the inclusion of all American citizens despite the color of their skin. These patriots campaigned for an economic revolution where every person was involved. All these fights were associated with mistreatment of the black community by the white. From the passage, the wealthy white fellows oppress the black people. The poverty itself is enough exploitation these people go through. It is also apparent, that most black people live in the ghetto.
In these areas, there is no adequate existence of basic things like water and food. When people are denied their fundamental rights, it means there is no equality. Based on the story, discrimination was rampant in New York to the extent of depriving people of basic needs. Miss Moore inquiries about the children’s impressions of the toy store. One of the children claims that white people are insane, while another girl expresses her desire to visit when she receives her birthday money. Sylvia is taken aback when Sugar speaks out. She points out that the sailboat costs more than a year’s worth of food for all youngsters.
In the passage, Sugar believes that the country is not much of a democracy if people do not have equal access to riches. Sugar’s understanding of the government is every person has an equal right to access resources that might make them rich. When she sees a toy worth the price of feeding the whole community, he is surprised why some people would buy that while black people are dying of hunger. Sugar’s response pleases Miss Moore, but Sylvia is outraged by her betrayal.
Sugar is calm this time as she stands on her foot once more (Dieng 82). That is pure evidence that mistreatment exists in the streets of New York City. Sylvia, who is the narrator, shows how the black kids are being mistreated by the rich. In passage two, when Moore gives her money, she is happy to receive money from someone she is not close to. She chooses to misspend the cash, which shows how black kids spend their money.
All the children in the story come from a poor background, where they know less about money. They live in an apartment where drunkards live. According to Miss Moore, the place is a slum with a reek of urine. When they get a few coins from Miss Moore, the children exhibit varying degrees of money security. From the passage, Sylvia refuses to give the driver tip because she thinks she will give too much money (Conor 72).
The children became aware of the value of money and are well aware that the prices paid for toys at F. A. O. Schwarz are exorbitant. The money changes the children like Sylvia and becomes notorious. Sylvia considers what her family could purchase with the $35; bunk beds, a family trip to Granddaddy’s farm in the country, and even rent and piano fees. There is a considerable gap between the rich and the poor in the city. This was categorically clear with how the children spend money and how they treat others.
The passage has discussed social inequalities in the US, specifically in New York City. There is a need for civil rights between the black and white to avoid discrimination and mistreatment. The black tends to be poor, while the white is known to have more money. When the poor get, they misuse the money, and others spend it sparingly by involving their family in the budget. This is illustrated in how Sylvia plans to spend the money she gets. The youngsters learn that social divides are broad and that by leaving their ghetto, they can see that, in comparison to Manhattan, they are all getting a small piece of the American pie. Miss Moore and the Manhattan trip teach the kids that poverty does not exist everywhere and that knowledge may empower them to improve their situation.
Works Cited
Conor, Tomas. “The Early Developments of Black Women’s Studies in the Lives of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and Audre Lorde.” Black women Lives, vol. 10, no. 2, 2018, pp. 70-83.
Dieng, Babacar. “The Use of Aave in Toni Cade Bambara’s Short Stories: Erasing the Boundaries between Écriture and Orature.” Partage du savoir-Mélanges offerts en hommage au Professeur Mamadou Kandji: Tome 2, Sciences humaines et sociales vol. 2, no. 1, 2017, pp 33-85.
Lewis, Thabiti. ”Black People Are My Business”: Toni Cade Bambara’s Practices of Liberation. Wayne State University Press, 2020.
Wright, Nazera Sadiq. “Black Girl Interiority in Toni Cade Bambara’s Gorilla, My Love.” The Black Scholar vol. 50, no. 4, 2020, pp. 5-16.