The Jacket

“Phil knew that all he had done was tell the truth. About the lunch money, about the jacket, about Daniel’s grandmother. It was all true. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d done something bad.”

These lines from Phil’s thoughts come toward the beginning of Chapter 2 where Phil begins to work through his feelings about the jacket and Daniel. Phil’s version of events is correct—he was only in the fourth-grade hall to deliver his brother’s lunch money, the jacket was his, and he does know Daniel’s grandmother. While these things are true, Phil feels as if their truth is somehow wrong. These are his first feelings of guilt as he realizes that, though he was truthful, his actions were motivated by assumptions about Daniel based on his race.

“But being friends with everyone and being someone’s friend, those were two different things. And as he thought about it, Phil knew he had never had a black kid for a friend, not really.”

Here, Phil considers what it really means to think he’s “friends with everybody.” At first, he believes this means he treats everyone the same because he’s friends with everyone. As he thinks about it more, he realizes that there are people he considers friends and there are people he is friendly with—and these are not the same things. Further, he realizes his friends are all white kids like him and that he’s only friendly with the Black kids at his school. This difference illustrates the problem with limiting our thinking to “friends with everybody.” Such thoughts keep us from seeing the divides, racial or otherwise, within our life and how we tend to only develop true, lasting relationships with people we deem to be like us.

“Still, after school every day almost all the black kids got onto buses or climbed into cars and drove away. Those kids just disappeared as Phil went to basketball practice or walked home with his friends.”

The Black kids are transported to and from school (instead of living close enough to walk, as the white kids do), so it is difficult for Phil to understand that they have lives and realities outside of school. Once they “disappeared” from Phil’s perception, they ceased to exist, so he has no sense of their lived realities outside of school. Without a sense of how their lives might be the same as (or different from) his, he continues to see the Black kids as “Other.”

“Most of the African American kids sat together at lunch, and they tended to hang around together in the halls and at recess. But that didn’t seem weird to Phil. When you eat lunch, or if you have a little free time, you want to be with your friends, that’s all. Besides, everyone played sports together during gym, and sometimes at recess, too. Everyone, together. No problems.”

In this passage, Phil continues to try and justify the divides he’s beginning to see all around him. He wants to believe that the lack of problems at school means that everyone gets along, but in truth, he has no real evidence to back this up. Just because he doesn’t see problems doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and just because everyone plays together during gym or recess (times when they are forced to be together) doesn’t mean there are genuine relationships among kids of different races. Phil’s observation about lunch (Black kids sitting together and white kids sitting together) supports The Harmful Effects of Racism by showing how implicit bias leads people to gravitate toward those they consider similar and safe. It also shows that such behavior is not limited to a single race.

“Can I help it if we have a cleaning lady, and she’s black and we’re white? And can I help it if she’s Daniel’s grandmother? I mean, it’s not like we’re rich or something. It’s not like we force Lucy to work for us, is it?”

Phil’s thoughts here in Chapter 1 suggest that circumstances change depending on the people involved. Phil’s family happens to be white, and Daniel’s family happens to be Black. There is historical and societal context to a Black person working, especially as domestic help, for a white person. Phil is working to unravel the implications of the dynamics between his family and Daniel’s grandmother, as well as how those dynamics relate to the jacket. Because Phil’s family is white and Daniel’s grandmother is their Black cleaning lady, the gift of the jacket could be viewed as an act of pity or condescension, even though this is not the case.

“Grandma Morcone had long arms, thin and white. She wore silver bracelets on both wrists, and on one of her hands there was a ring with a big green stone in it. Phil could picture her fine clothes, her small diamond earrings, her silver blue hair, always neatly styled. His grandma didn’t clean houses for other families. She probably never put a bandanna over her hair and pulled on yellow rubber gloves. Like Lucy did.”

Here, Phil thinks about his grandmother, who lives in a fancy condo and is well-off financially. Taken with the realizations Phil makes when he visits Daniel’s home in Chapter 6, this passage shows The Trouble with Making Assumptions. Phil concludes here that Daniel’s grandmother (and, by extension, Daniel’s family) must be poor because cleaning someone else’s house is an unglamorous job that someone like Phil’s grandmother would never take. In fact, Daniel’s family is not poor, and while the reason Daniel’s grandmother cleans houses is never given, the nice house she lives in suggests that the job is not one she has out of desperation. Phil assumes that Daniel’s grandmother cleans houses because she is different from his idea of rich people—namely his bedecked grandmother.

“But Mom giving something to Lucy, that was different, right? Because it’s not like Lucy was begging, and it isn’t like Mom was trying to make herself feel all rich and grand or make Lucy feel small and poor. Because Mom was just trying to be nice, right? And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Phil’s mom giving Daniel’s grandmother the jacket is seen through the lens of their relationship—employer giving something to an employee. The power imbalance here makes it look as if the jacket is a gift of pity bestowed on someone who needs charity. While this is not the case, it opens a discussion of power dynamics. As Phil notes, his mom wasn’t trying to feel high and mighty, and Daniel’s grandmother wasn’t begging. There’s nothing wrong with the way the gift is presented—it’s one woman offering an unused jacket to another woman who has a grandson the jacket will fit. Under different circumstances, though, this type of kindness could be seen as an insult, and this illustrates how there could be something wrong with offering kindness. Kindness is only as kind as the circumstances surrounding it.

“And still looking at the black kids, Phil recognized one of them, the one with his hands jammed into his pockets and his shoulders hunched up against the cold. He recognized the kid who wasn’t wearing a jacket.”

Here, Phil is on the playground at recess. He’s just heard a group of people laughing and looked up to see it was a group of Black kids. Even before he recognized Daniel, Phil felt like the kids were laughing at him, which has made him feel guilty, and he interprets this situation based on that guilt. Phil sees the results of his actions in Chapter 1 here. By accusing Daniel of stealing the jacket, Phil exposed the situation behind how Daniel got the jacket, and Daniel’s embarrassment caused him to toss away the jacket. As a result, Daniel is now outside in the cold without a jacket, and Phil feels guilty because his actions brought this about. This passage shows how all actions have consequences. Phil felt justified accusing Daniel at the time, but since learning he was wrong and now seeing Daniel without a jacket, Phil is forced to question whether it was worth trying to be right about the jacket being stolen.

“There were larger homes too. Homes with real driveways and garages and small lawns, some of them surrounded with fancy iron fences. This time of year, in addition to the BEWARE OF DOG signs and the security system notices, the fences were decorated with red ribbons and Christmas wreaths.

Phil looked around as he walked, and he tried to think if any black families lived anywhere in his neighborhood. And he couldn’t think of one. Not one family. Not ever.”

This passage comes while Phil walks home from school. For the first time, he’s really looking at his neighborhood, and he sees it in a new light. The description of the larger homes with “real driveways” and fences implies that Phil’s home isn’t quite so nice and shows that race is not an automatic indicator of wealth or privilege. The alarm and dog signs are things Phil once took for granted as just part of a neighborhood, but he now wonders if these things are common across all neighborhoods or only in the wealthier part of his own. Lastly, Phil’s realization that there are no Black families in his neighborhood (and that there have never been that he can remember) is the catalyst for Phil to consider The Harmful Effects of Racism and the divisions that are built into society. Together, these lines are an example of what we notice when we question things we haven’t before.

“The bus pulled away from the curb, and Phil started walking again. Turning a corner, he looked up and saw his own reflection in a shop window.

He saw a white kid. A white kid who looked like he belonged here.”

This passage, from Phil’s walk home from school, represents how a single change to our thinking is a catalyst for changing how we view the world. Phil has just heard himself thinking that the Black women didn’t look like they belonged in the shopping center, and with that thought of Blackness as “Other” wreaking havoc in his mind, he looks at his own reflection and thinks that he does belong here because he looks like most of the other people in the area. These lines are an example of how the human brain classifies information and how this classification system can be harmful when applied to people. Phil thinks he belongs there because he has white skin but that the other women didn’t because they have darker skin. This natural tendency of the brain becomes a way of sowing division among groups, and unless we actively work against the urge to categorize and make sense of the world, this can grow into implicit bias as we categorize ourselves as belonging and “others” as not.

“‘And we live in a part of town where it’s mostly white people. Tell me this, did you choose to live here?’

‘No.’

‘See? You’ve got nothing to do with it. Did you even choose to be white? Is that your fault?’

‘Well, no.’

‘Exactly.’”

This conversation between Phil and his mother highlights a few things about race and society. Phil’s mother exemplifies someone who is unaware of their implicit bias and, thus, who has not thought critically about the divisions race forms in society. She also misses the opportunity to validate and explain what Phil is seeing and feeling. Still, the points she makes are valid ones. Phil has neither chosen to be white nor to live in a part of town that’s mostly white people, and while he should not be blamed for who he is or where he lives, he is not exempt him from the need to recognize the biases society and upbringing have instilled in him and work to eliminate them.

“This whole bus is white kids. Only white kids! No, ’cause there’s Julie Chin, and she’s not white. But she’s not black. No black kids on my bus, not one.”

Phil begins to notice the world around him. Much like with his neighborhood, Phil studies his school bus and realizes it is ridden by almost exclusively white kids. The one exception is a girl of Asian descent, whom Phil doesn’t notice right away because she presents as white—meaning that her skin is light enough that Phil doesn’t think of her as “other.” Beneath the surface, this means Phil’s brain categorizes this girl as similar to him, which shows another way the brain’s tendency to categorize keeps us from seeing what’s around us. Here, instead of the brain dividing groups based on appearance, it lumps people together. This keeps differences from being acknowledged and celebrated.

“Because Phil knew that Daniel’s bus was practically all black kids. And the part of town where Daniel’s bus was coming from, it had to be almost the opposite from his, right? Like, only black families and no white families.”

This passage is the culmination of all the previous places Phil has thought about the makeup of his own neighborhood. Before, he applied his new ideas about race and bias to what he saw daily, which caused him to notice how little diversity exists around his home. Here, he extrapolates that knowledge to Daniel. Based on how the Black kids tend to hang out together at school, Phil reasons that Daniel’s neighborhood, like Phil’s own, lacks diversity. This is yet another example of how bias and divides are not specific to a single race or group. It also shows the universal similarities among all people in the way that something that applies to Phil may be applied to Daniel (or anyone of any race) as well.

“Because Daniel might be looking for me, like he’ll maybe try to embarrass me again. And maybe Daniel talked to all his friends about me. Like maybe they’re gonna gang up on me out on the playground. Or maybe Daniel cut out my picture from the yearbook and put it on the Internet, and now everybody in the world knows I’m prejudiced! Except my mom.”

Phil’s thought pattern here is like his thoughts in Chapter 1 about being late and failing his math test—legitimate fears blown up into something unlikely and disproportionate to what is going on. This shows that, even though Phil has made some big realizations, he is still the same person. Learning about our biases and the world around us doesn’t fundamentally change who we are. Instead, it adds to what we know about ourselves while we remain the same person overall. Phil’s fear of encountering Daniel here is natural. He is embarrassed about what happened the day before, and he doesn’t yet know how to handle those feelings, which shows growth because Phil is actively trying to figure things out.

“Sure. Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine that those guys are so great. Great is great. But see what I mean? When you think about great, do you remember Bob Cousy or Larry Bird or Bill Walton? No, you remember Wilt Chamberlain and Magic Johnson. And players like Ainge and Stockton? Forget about it. These days it’s all about the black guys. So don’t get me started.”

These lines are spoken by Phil’s dad shortly after Phil tells his father the kid who’ll likely start for the school basketball team is Black. Where Phil’s mom is unaware of her biases, Phil’s dad knows he is biased but tries to cover it up. These lines show his own insecurities and his tendency toward white fragility. As a result, he is angry at famous Black basketball players because he feels they have shoved white players out of the game.

“Then Lucy saw his dad at the table. Phil watched her. Lucy seemed to pause a second, adjusting her face and her voice. Then she said, ‘Morning, Mr. Morelli.’”

Here, Daniel’s grandmother has just arrived at Phil’s house. After greeting Phil casually, she pauses to collect herself and projects a completely different, more formal attitude to Phil’s dad. Daniel’s grandmother knows Phil’s dad is prejudiced, and she displays code-switching here—when members of an underrepresented group adjust their behavior and speech to fit with the dominant culture. This process may be conscious or unconscious, and here, Daniel’s grandmother displays conscious code-switching as she changes the way she interacts to be more acceptable to Phil’s dad. Conscious reasons for code-switching include avoiding conformance to stereotypes and avoiding identification as “other.” Daniel’s grandmother does a bit of both here—toning down her behavior and language to avoid judgment and to remain in good graces with Phil’s dad.

“All his life Lucy had called him Philip, and she had called his brother Jimmy, and his sister Juliana. And for as long as he could remember, Lucy had called his mom June, because that was her name—June. Because, like his mom had said, Lucy was a friend.

But Phil couldn’t remember Lucy ever using his dad’s first name. She always called him Mr. Morelli. Never Nick. Always Mr. Morelli. And for the first time in his life Phil understood why.”

This moment builds upon all the others where Phil has noticed divides and biases at work. Up until this point, those moments were reserved for groups (such as who was on the bus) or strangers (such as the people in the shopping center). Here, Phil sees evidence of prejudice and bias in his own home because his father has either requested or demonstrated the expectation that Lucy address him formally. As Phil begins to understand the power dynamics of race, he will be better equipped to address his own attitudes and treatment of others.

“‘Well, it was kind of my fault. I didn’t know it was his, so I thought he stole it or something. He got pretty mad about it.’

Lucy smiled, nodding again. ‘He does have a temper, that boy. But he gets over things. You didn’t mean him any harm. Any fool knows that, and he’s no fool. Straight A’s in all his classes. Smart as a whip.’”

This exchange between Phil and Daniel’s grandmother shows Phil coming to terms with the mistake he made. By sharing what happened, Phil is acknowledging that he was in the wrong. In addition, he is seeking a way to make things better and to show Daniel that he is sorry for what he did. Daniel’s grandmother doesn’t react poorly to what Phil did and shows him compassion. Her casual attitude around Phil means she trusts him and knows he’s a good kid, meaning she also knows that he didn’t intentionally cause a problem with Daniel. Overall, this exchange posits that the best way to deal with incidents caused by implicit bias is to face them head-on and learn from them to do better in the future.

“In the kitchen Phil peeled a piece of paper from the memo pad by the phone. In large letters he wrote, ‘Going to run over to Lee’s house, maybe play some B-ball. Be back later.’

As Phil signed his name and put the note under the saltshaker on the kitchen table, he knew he was letting himself get away with another half-truth. Yes, he was actually going to run over to Lee’s house. That was the true part. But when he got there, Phil knew he wouldn’t stop. He was going to keep on running.”

This passage builds upon previous scenes where Phil has worked to overcome his bias and where he has established himself as an average 12-year-old boy. Phil knows that no one else can fix what he caused with Daniel, and the only way for him to set things straight is to talk to Daniel himself. After realizing his mom holds implicit bias and his dad is openly prejudiced, Phil doesn’t want to talk to either of them about his plan because he thinks they will try to stop him or convince him he didn’t do anything wrong when he knows he did. Because of this, Phil feels it’s necessary to lie about where he’s going, and while lying often hints at immaturity, here, it shows Phil taking responsibility for his actions and taking action to fix the problem.

“The first week of basketball practice had been tough. It had felt like too much running, and Phil had limped home every day. But his legs and his lungs soon learned to obey, so by the end of the second week Phil had his running game under control.”

While Phil is running the two miles to Daniel’s house, he considers how difficult it had been to get in shape so that he could make it that distance. This passage reflects Phil’s commitment to improving himself. He understands that growth requires work, and work can be uncomfortable. This passage foreshadows his desire and his will to learn from his experience with Daniel and work to be a better person.

“About ten blocks from home Phil began to see more African Americans. About fifteen blocks from home there were a lot more black people than white. And when he was about four blocks from Daniel’s street, the change was complete. Phil was the only white person on the street.”

These lines show Phil seeing division among the neighborhoods of his community as he moves from a neighborhood that’s mostly white people, to a more heterogenous neighborhood, and finally to Daniel’s mostly Black neighborhood. This is likely Phil’s first and only experience being a minority.

“Because Phil hadn’t known what to expect. Running along, he had thought back over some books he’d read. Books like Journey to Jo’burg, and The Well. Books like Bud, Not Buddy. These were stories about black people in other countries, or stories about other times and other parts of America, or stories about poor families living in the country. And Phil had seen TV shows like The Cosby Show and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where black people lived in houses a lot fancier than his—even fancier than Grandma Morcone’s condo. And Phil could also remember seeing terrible-looking parts of Los Angeles on the TV news. And Phil thought, I’ve known tons of black kids all my life, and I never knew they could live in houses and neighborhoods just like mine!”

Phil thinks this as he enters Daniel’s neighborhood and is surprised to find it’s so like his own. The books and shows Phil thinks about here show how media influences our understanding of how “others” live. Phil’s understanding of Black people is influenced by the media he has experienced. Some of it shows Black people as poor and unable to grow beyond their roots. Others show wealthy, successful Black families, and Phil expresses surprise that even though he’s had diverse experiences of Blackness in media, he’s still surprised that a Black kid could live in a neighborhood like his. While media representations of all forms of Blackness is important, it doesn’t solve Phil’s implicit racism. Implicit biases require that each person investigate the context of their own prejudice and work to overcome it.

“Just like lunch at home. Same stuff. And Phil didn’t want to feel surprised about that, but he was. He had thought everything would be so different here. And it wasn’t. It just wasn’t.”

Here, Phil is eating lunch at Daniel’s house, and he is surprised that everything feels so familiar. Through a combination of what media, society, and his upbringing have taught him, Phil has internalized that Black people’s lives are completely differently from his. He learns that his family and Daniel’s family are far more similar than different, again showing how people in general are more alike than different.