What's Mine and Yours

The student transfer has been completed. Gee’s English teacher is a Black man named Mr. Riley. Gee dislikes Mr. Riley because he calls on him more often than the other students, as though he is taking a special interest in him. Mr. Riley tells Gee after class one day that he has arranged to have dinner with Gee and his mother. After their discussion, Gee notices Adira crying in the hallway; white students have bullied her, particularly over her hair. Gee proposes going to the principal, but Adira tells him it won’t do any good.

Gee is impressed with Mr. Riley’s wife, but finds Mr. Riley’s insistence that Gee do more to shine as a young man of color uncomfortable. Jade disagrees, insisting Gee has as much right to the school and an education as any other boy. Afterward, Jade goes to the home of her boyfriend, Dr. León Henriquez, to complain about Mr. Riley. She says the Rileys were “uppity” and feels that Mr. Riley only wants Gee to excel to prove that Black kids are equal to white kids, not because he cares about Gee. León comments that Jade has done the same thing, but Jade says she is simply “teaching [Gee] how to live up to his own standards—not anybody else’s” (198).