[1][2][3][4] In 1966, the public schools in rural Jones County, North Carolina desegregated in response to the "Freedom of Choice Plan".

Early in the memoir in the chapter "Black bitch", Jimmy Grimsley, a sixth grader at the time, fired racial epithets at his three African American classmates – Violet, Ursula, and Rhonda.

Grimsley is then taken aback when Violet fires back, convinced of her civil rights and standing her own ground.

It was the moment when Grimsley began to realize the layers under his racist remarks, starting to question the racial hierarchy existing within the social system.

He notes how jokes told by his father and friends were based on black inferiority, repetitively asserting racial dominance.