James and Ruth, his mother, had a similar experience in public schools. They both felt different in their school, they were part of the minority race in their school, since Ruth attended a gentile school, and she was a Jew, and James attended a white school, and he was Black. In other words, they were both attending to white public schools while not being white, so they both felt odd in their schools. James says that in one occasion he felt different for being Black, since a White boy exposed him in his classroom. “...someone in the back of the class whispered, ‘James is a nigger!” (McBride 89). They were the only blacks in his school, and he felt excluded sometimes. Ruth, on the other hand, also experienced bullying in her school, she said that no one liked her, and that the white kids hated Jews at her school, “Hey, Ruth, when did you start being a dirty Jew?’ they'd ask” (McBride 80). Ruth attended to a white school because she had to go to a public school, “but the law was the law, so I had to go to school with the White folks” (McBride 80).