Racial issues for the Walls

In the past few chapters of The Glass Castle, Jeanette has to deal with racial issues in West Virginia. A black girl in Jeanettes class took a special disliking to Jeanette on the first day for acting better than everyone else with her reading skills. Because of it, a group of friends and the girl, Dinitia, decided to beat Jeanette up after school and during recess. It continued on for a couple weekd until a little boy from the black neighborhood got lost one day and Jeanette gave him a piggy back ride all the way home. Dinitia saw Jeanette as she dropped the little boy off at his house and never beat her up again after the incident. In fact they became such good friends that Jeanette's family was starting to get worried. They told her people might call her names for hanging out with those kind of people. Despite everyone else and what they had told her, Jeanette remained friends with her and went swimming with the blacks during one morning at the public swimming pool that is reserved for whites during the afternoon. It was one of the best days of her life but since the school year was about to start up again, Jeanette was never able to hang out with Dinitia again. The racial issues of the time led to the fact that all throughout high school, Jeanette never made any more friends and forced herself into isolation, eating in the bathroom and working in the library after school. Life was tough for her all around. At home, and because of the Dinitia incident, at school too.