New Boy (Hogarth Shakespeare Project #5)

by Tracy Chevalier

“Who do you play?” O demanded of Ian. “He plays Puck,” Dee said. “The head fairy who makes all the mischief happen.

In some ways overt racism based on ignorance was easier to deal with. It was the more subtle digs that got to him. The kids who were friendly at school but didn’t ask him to their birthday parties even when they had invited the rest of the class. The conversations that stopped when he walked into a room, a slight pause reserved for his presence. The remarks made and then the addendum, “Oh, I don’t mean you, Osei. You’re different.” Or a comment like “he’s black but he’s smart,” and the inability to understand why that was offensive. The assumption that he was better at sports because black people just—you know—are, or at dancing, or at committing crimes. The way people talked about Africa as if it were just one country. The inability to tell black people apart, so Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were mixed up, or Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, or Flip Wilson and Bill Cosby—though none of them looked anything like the other.