White Patty white Patty , you don’t shine, call me a nigger and I’ll beat your behind.
White Patty white Patty , you don’t shine, call me a nigger and I’ll beat your behind.
The proud voices call out to her in groups of dark brown faces, waiting for a reaction. She keeps her head down. She just wants to be left alone, to be happy, White Patty is small and pale, with white hair and blue eyes.
Her mother is a heroin addict , a gang member, and a parent to 7 other children from 4 different fathers of 4 different ethnicities. One of the children was born to a black father and put up for adoption.
White Patty was never taught arithmetic at home and nobody practiced the alphabet with her. She lives day to day with the fear that she will not have enough food to eat, or that she will be beaten.
Her sister was burned on the stove yesterday by her Mother. Her sister’s name is Louie. The other siblings call her “screwy Louie” because of the signs of mental incapacity she is now showing. Other than being dropped on her head as a child, and occupying the postition of her mother’s favorite metaphorical ragdoll, she has unintentionally fallen down the stairs twice, knocking herself unconscious.
The more you cry, the more you get hit. The more you sit around and do nothing, the more you get hit. The more you are seen, the more you are hit, so White Patty stays out of her mother’s way. She always picks up after herself. She cleans the house. She braids her sisters’ hair methodically and beautifully, cuts her sisters’ and brothers’ hair, and makes them breakfast, and makes sure they look presentable for school.
But at school the taunts become more and more regular. It isn’t just the black kids, it’s the hispanic kids too. They follow her home and call her puta, perra, and challenge her to fight.
Back at home, she asks her mother, who has learned to...