The trials and tribulations of attending a new school are compounded by being one of the few Black kids in Augustin Prep. Miles Morales’s problems in his new environment are nothing compared to Gil’s attempt to make it at a new robotics school.
He was insistent on being there. He knows the school is predominantly white but it has the best robotics program and he’s determined to make a name for himself there. But he has to deal with the potential distancing from his friends, bullies, the constant stares of white students and maintaining the tightrope balance between school and home life. His brand-new school uniform is de rigueur but makes him a target for thieving thugs in his neighborhood and limits the martial arts movements he needs to defend himself.
The author enlivens his narration with colorful Jamaican language as well as the bright urban underpinnings of food, music, poetry, art, et al., that describe Gil’s world. The grim problems of non-documentation, the ever-looming threat of police brutality, the simultaneous expectations and suspicions of anxious white people—they’re all on display here.
In these early chapters, there are passages that will make people of color nod in solidarity and likely make white folks squirm. The paths of Black and Brown people in a world of “colonizers” remain fraught with pitfalls, bumps and cracks. Just because you can sail neatly over them in fancy cars doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
He was insistent on being there. He knows the school is predominantly white but it has the best robotics program and he’s determined to make a name for himself there. But he has to deal with the potential distancing from his friends, bullies, the constant stares of white students and maintaining the tightrope balance between school and home life. His brand-new school uniform is de rigueur but makes him a target for thieving thugs in his neighborhood and limits the martial arts movements he needs to defend himself.
The author enlivens his narration with colorful Jamaican language as well as the bright urban underpinnings of food, music, poetry, art, et al., that describe Gil’s world. The grim problems of non-documentation, the ever-looming threat of police brutality, the simultaneous expectations and suspicions of anxious white people—they’re all on display here.
In these early chapters, there are passages that will make people of color nod in solidarity and likely make white folks squirm. The paths of Black and Brown people in a world of “colonizers” remain fraught with pitfalls, bumps and cracks. Just because you can sail neatly over them in fancy cars doesn’t mean they aren’t there.