Comp&Lit 102 A Sugary Lesson When you look back over the last 40 years of America’s history you will see the biggest change has been segregation. Segregation is not only a powerful issue in Americas past but also is still prominent in the world we live in today. Although, it many have tried to faint into the background of society as Toni Cade Bambara noticed many children still continue to grow up with it in their lives. In “The Lesson” she shows you many children are blind to the segregation right in front of their eyes but you do not have to let it determine your life. Miss Moore the teacher of a class of students in “The Lesson” Is in the process of taking her students on a field trip to F.A.O Schwarz’s; a toy store in the city for what seems like no reason to the students. Sylvia and her cousin Sugar are the protagonists of the story and immediately come off as the know-it-all kind of girls. However, when you start to hear Sylvia say things such as “So me and Sugar leaning on the mailbox being surly, which is a Miss Moore word.” And “Would much rather snatch Sugar and go to the sunset and terrorize the west Indian kids…” you begin to think that they are just common naïve girls. They are unable to see the consequences of their actions and the stereotypes that they are furthering. That’s why when they reach the door for F.A.O’s and Sylvia says “me and sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is, but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about?”(334) you start to feel for Sylvia as she is slowly getting the idea that black people aren’t welcome some places even though there is nothing physically keeping us out. When Miss Moore finally gets the students inside Sylvia says inside her head “we are all walking on tiptoes and hardly touchin the games and puzzles and things… then me and sugar bump smack into each other, so busy gazing at the toys, ‘specially the sailboat. But we don’t laugh and go into our fat-lady bump-stomach routine. We just stare at that