"Race and Place"

"Though I'd excitedly turned my library card over and over in my hand all the way to the library and though my mother announced that I could check out more than one book because she didn't have time to bring me back midweek for another, the shock on my grandmother's face dampened my appetite. The inequities between the two libraries had restated our insignificance. 'There is something inferior about the people who live over there,' the white cathedral seemed to be taunting. I left the library without checking out one book." pg. 32

I found this paragraph to be especially thought provoking. I thought it was very sad that seeing something as simple as a library that was especially nice in another neighborhood made the author feel inadequate in some way. I feel really bad for the child in this story after reading this part. I also thought it showed that there really are many views on every situation. While the people from the richer neighborhood probably think that they deserve the nicer library since they use it more, the people from the poorer neighborhood see it as a kind of slap in the face that the wealth for public space is so unevenly divided. I think this paragraph could bring up many issues about how public money should be divided.