Interracial Kindness

Jeannette is very insecure about her past life of poverty, and although she has now dug herself out of the rut of destitution, her parents’ continued homelessness is always a reminder of

When Jeannette begins school in Welch, an African American girl Dinitia Hewitt and her friends harassed and beat up Jeannette for being scrawny and filthy. She is constantly made fun of because it is apparent that she lives in poverty. The other children do not accept other that aren’t like them and Jeannette is no exception. Her worn clothes and grimy hair are like a neon sign shouting about her life in poverty which makes Jeannette an easy target to bullies. Jeannette tries very hard to stand up for herself, however, the bullying only stops once other realize that living in poverty and being different was not Jeannette’s

Throughout her childhood, Jeannette is faced with instability. Her parents had a very unique style that could be classified as “hands off” parenting. For example, Rose tells Jeanette that “If you don’t want to sink you better learn to swim… That’s one lesson that every parent needs to teach their child” (Walls 137). Instead of growing up in a traditional house, Jeannette and her family constantly moved from town to town. When her mother got bored, or her father got in too many bar fights, Jeannette was forced to pick up her life and move to another small desert town. Due to her nomadic lifestyle, Jeannette refrained from establishing deep friendships amongst her school and

Jeannette listened to her parents, of course, as a child you feel dependent on them. They would often only spend months at one tons only to move to the next when the family’s father, Rex Wells, lost his job. Little Jeannette was left alone with her brother, who was only a year younger than her, they would go looking for trouble as young kids would. Their parents would allow them to do what they felt they wanted as long as they were home by the time the street lights came on. Her parents taught their children to not be dependent on them for everything, to learn harder schooling, and learn to be strong when the world seems to stop. All of these are great things to teach but the way the children

By the end of the book Jeannette starts seeing that she does not agree with her parents motives, ideas, and ways of parenting so Jeannette becomes more vocal of her thoughts and opinions. One situation where she stood up for herself and grasped the idea that she is the only one who controls herself is when Jeannette and her parents get in a fight about money. Her mother concludes that she should “start living her life” for herself and that Jeannette and the other kids could make their own money. This makes Jeannette question why her mother is giving up on them and it ends with Jeannette accusing her that she is not acting like a mother “My mucus is yellow,’ Mom said. ‘If everyone who had yellow mucus stayed home, the schools would be pretty empty,’ I told her. Mom's head snapped up. ‘You can't talk to me like that,’ she said. "I'm your mother.’ ‘If you want to be treated like a mother,’ I said, ‘you should act like one." Then, Jeanette's father comes in and whips her with his belt, and at that very moment Jeannette knew that she would never be whipped again “The air was clear and cool, and the forest floor was thick with leaves that had fallen from the buckeyes and poplars. Late in the afternoon, I sat down on a tree trunk, leaning forward because the backs of my thighs still stung. All through the long walk, the pain had kept me thinking, and by the time I reached the tree trunk, I had made two decisions.” The author uses imagery and symbolism to show that this is when Jeannette has had enough and comes to the realization that she is alone and only her can get herself out of the situation she is in. The imagery used is describing the forest around her, this then merges with symbolism. By saying “the air was clear and cool” it symbolizes as Jeanette's realization and that it was “clear”

Jeannette was always dirty from her adventurous because she lived in the desert for some time and would chase around the wild animals and insects. Jeannette was always traveling with her family and had no control of her life. Her parents were selfish, law breaking people who couldn't keep a job. Jeannette was young and didn't understand why her parents

She has more insight to racism when she attended school and the kids began bullying her because of how skinny and unhealthy she is. Another example of racism is when a young African-American named Dinitia also begins bullying her until she sees Jeannette being compassionate to a young African-American boy. Jeannette has a new understanding with sexuality when she experiences different situations. The first example is when she is forcedly kissed and almost raped by Billy Deel, the second when she sees Erma, her father’s mother, sexually molesting Brian, and the final example is when she distracts an older man when her and Rex was at the bar. Another reason that does not happened to her or what she witnessed, but it affects her, is when she finds out that Dinitia is pregnant and is sent to jail when she stabs the person that had gotten her

Throughout her early childhood, she ignores her father's drunken escapades, and thinks of him as a loving father and excellent teacher of the wild. It isn't until her junior year of high school that she realizes the indisputable flaws her father has. She resents Dad's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also begins to resent her mother, whom she’s never been close to. Some cause of her resentment includes her mom’s refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply, especially since Rex won’t be providing like he says he will. This resentment eventually motivates her to move away from her parents and Welch. She ends up in New York City with her sister Lori in which she focuses on her studies and becomes a successful journalist. Jeannette is a natural forgiver and it shows even when she moves away from her parents, but this doesn’t stop her from being haunted by her past and with her transition from poverty into the upper-middle class. By the end of the novel, Jeannette is a symbol of the resilience and

Jeannette and her dad started to grow apart. He was always leaving and not really there for Jeannette and his family. He would leave for days and wasn’t really working. Jeannette started to learn that his dad’s actions weren’t really smart. She started to see his lack of responsibility and what his actions are doing and what they lead to. She knew that her father had a drinking problem and would always go to the bar. Jeannette realizes that Rex keeps letting her down because he still continued to drink and gets drunk. Jeannette was at a breaking point and she asked her mom to leave her father. But her father still has his moments when they would still bond together when she is older .Every birthday he would give her a star and she would love it. But at the end of the day, Jeannette loved her

Jeannette is the second child of four children. She tells her life story through the book. She starts out from her earliest memory, when she was three years old, and into her adulthood. Her actions foreshadows that she will be successful when she grows up away from her parents. Since Jeannette’s parents were often careless of their children, Jeannette had to take care of younger siblings and work to get money for food, but she still loved her parents. Eventually, she decided to leave her parents and go to New York. There she became a successful author and journalist.

Communication scholars (Miller-Ott, Kelly, & Duran, 2012; Stewart, Dainton, & Goodboy, 2014; Walther, Heide, Tong, Carr, & Atkin, 2010) have researched communication between couples in romantic relationships. Researchers have examined inter-racial romantic relationships (Chory-Assad & Booth-Butterfield, 2001; Harris & Trego, 2008; Rubenfeld & Clément, 2012), relational maintenance strategies (Ayres,1983; Goodboy & Bolkan, 2011), and computer mediated communication (Walther, Deandrea, & Tong, 2010). However, few scholars (Brody, Mooney, Westerman, & McDonald, 2009) examined cell phone usage as a relational maintenance tool in romantic relationships. The researchers who have studied romantic relationships in various contexts generally focus on relational maintenance strategies (Ayres,1983; Goodboy & Myers, 2010; Stewart, Dainton, & Goodboy, 2014) and computer mediated communication (Aukus & Rumsey, 2010). Consequently, few researchers have studied romantic relationship material involving the communication between inter-racial couples over the technologic medium of cell phones.

With interracial relationships growing widely throughout the country, many are becoming accepting of the change. On the other hand, racism and prejudice gloom over many individuals and their beliefs. Not believing in the amalgamation of races due to religion and family beliefs. Deep down they live in hypocrisy, as they too are from amalgamation of either race or ethnicity. With this being said, their views are used to purify the white race and manipulate those who do not know better into thinking that race mixing is bad; however, most people are the product of amalgamation. When it comes to interracial relationships, political parties play a huge part. For one, studies reveal that “8% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans oppose of miscegenation” (Livingston).

A scream escaped Rue’s lips, when she awoke from her dream, as her hollow gray eyes darted back and forth, confirming her surroundings. Her arms ached from a memory of excessive pain from being beaten by her father in the dark basement of her large home. She was beaten for being smart, silly, or kind with her friends she had made, years ago. She wanted to be an author, but her father thought otherwise, and gave much disapprobation towards her. He wanted her to become business woman. In fact, it was all she could remember from her childhood, and now as a 17-year-old girl, she lives with her mom who has the starting stages of alzheimer’s disease. Rue slipped out the habiliments of her bed, and made her way through the labyrinth of her home, to the bathroom. The wall was draped with red velvet arabesque tapestries, and the floors were always furnished. She went out to school that cold morning, tucking her dyed blue hair behind her ears.

Jeannette displayed an uncanny representation of the Promise of Hard Work in her constant effort used while trying to raise money to fund her own family when her parents refused to. When Jeannette was a little girl, younger than thirteen years old, she brushed off the crazy living styles of her parents and disregarded it as a fun time. The moving from house to house was seen as an adventure, and the laying on the ground at night watching the stars was the alternative version of a classroom education. However, once Jeannette reached her teenage years, she realized that how her parents’ money problem was something of seriousness. Her father stealing their money was causing such financial stress, that Jeannette had to start supporting her family of six. Walls remembers, “I was afraid that Mr. Becker wouldn’t give me the job if he knew I was only thirteen, so I told him I was seventeen. He hired me on the

Friendship is a special type of relationship and plays an important role in people’s daily life. Friendships satisfy people’s need to belong (Mattingly, Oswald, & Clark, 2011). The definitions of friendship vary in different situations. For example, in business, friends are trading partners; while in politics, friends are considered to be the supporters for certain politicians as well as political alliances (Hruschka, 2010, p.4). The friendship that I will discuss in this paper is more like companionship and is based on mutual interests, aids, and benefits. Friendships usually involve reciprocity altruism for closed friends. It is argued that friendships may have an evolutionary benefit to regulate kin-based altruism to people who are not our closely kin (Hruschka, 2010, p.6). People can get a lot of benefits from healthy friendships, such as experiencing increase in happiness and well-being. Interracial friendships provide additional benefits to people in a way that it reduce the intergroup bias as well as discrimination.