Class Act

The time of year is now February, and Drew and Liam are slowly making up and learning to accept each other’s differences. The school seems to be waking up to their issues with diversity and inclusiveness, and the ignorance of the staff at times. They hold an assembly and announce that they will be sending staff out for diversity training as well as improving the sister school program to be more sensitive to students. Jordan seems impressed at first, but Drew is skeptical. Mr. Roche, the teacher who has continually fumbled his way through social interactions with people of color, is announced as the head of the new “Office of Diversity and Inclusion” (194). Next, the school shows a movie called The Mean Streets of South Uptown (198), which depicts a stereotypical version of life for Black people. Drew and Jordan are disgusted, and a frame shows them slipping out of their chairs into oblivion. The other students seem moved and almost changed by the film, apologizing to Drew for their hair-touching and offering gifts out of pity.

Jordan draws another comic as an emotional response, citing his experience watching the old sitcom Good Times with his father and realizing that Black people are usually depicted as struggling and suffering.