Push

Precious has given birth to a boy, whom she names Abdul Jamal Louis Jones—Abdul from a book of African names that a classmate gave her, and Louis in honor of Farrakhan. She notes, “My name mean something valuable—Precious” (67). When the social worker visited, she let it slip that her first child is living with her grandmother, which means that her mother will likely lose welfare benefits. Precious misses going to school and wonders what the class is doing. Her birthday passes and no one remembers it, so she celebrates quietly by herself. Precious loves her baby but has started to think of what happened with her father as rape since listening to Farrakhan talk about what white men did to Black women during slavery. She thinks of Abdul as “not [hers]” because she didn’t choose to have sex.

Precious writes to Ms. Rain in her journal, expressing frustration about having to quit school to care for a baby she had by rape. Ms. Rain writes back when she visits, encouraging Precious to return to school. Precious writes that the social worker asked about adoption, which made Precious angry; her grandmother had declared that even dogs don’t abandon their babies.