This Is My America

Tracy begins her letter with a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” (105). She asks Mr. Jones how this can be true when things seem to be moving backwards. She wonders if at some point in the future someone else will not have to experience the pain her family has and worries whether things will change soon enough to save her father and brother.

Tracy goes to Tasha’s house to see what she has missed at school. She finds Tasha fighting with her father, who she calls Daddy Greg. Tasha says that Daddy Greg can’t tell her what to do because he has been absent for so much of her life. Tracy consoles Tasha and the two discuss the reactions at school to Angela’s death. As Tracy expected, the school is divided “Black and white” (109) in terms of who is supporting Jamal and who believes he is guilty. Tasha says that there are rumors in school that Jamal was talking to Angela on the morning of the murder, and wonders if there might be more witnesses to Angela’s murder. Tracy decides not to tell Tasha that Angela and Jamal were seeing each other.