"I Became Her Target" Understanding

In I became Her Target, Roger Wilkins traces back his unforgettable experiences when he was at the age of 12. As a black newcomer, he was discriminated and laughed by his white neighbors as well as his classmates. It can be said that such an awkward situation where no one equaled him as a standard person hurt the author deeply. Discouraged and disappointed, the author came to his turning point since he had become the target of “Deadeye” Bean, his history teacher, Dorothy. She was the first teacher that gave much attention to this ignored child. She made many efforts to help the author to pick up his courage by walking forward at the first sight of me, asking him to correct other’s answers in class and enlighten me the importance of thinking. Thrown an eraser at the author, Miss Dorothy happened to get her nick name “Old Deadeye”, which also symbolized the epic ice-broken time; from that time the author has found his value among his peers and saw the sunshine of hope.
Reading between the lines, we may easily be impressed and shocked by the author’s vivid description mixed with his genuine and strong emotions from the bottom of his heart. Especially, every word on the paper conveys the gratitude toward the great teacher, “Deadeye”. It is the “deadeye” with her sharp eyes that dug out the shining point of the black child. It is the “deadeye” with her warm eyes that melt the harsh ice of discrimination. It is the “deadeye” with her pure eyes that cleared away the darkness of the world and made it the paradise of justice and love.
Although this story ends, it leaves us endless thoughts. On the one hand, from the angle of history, it reflects the problem of racial discrimination which rooted in the then American society. There is no doubt that “every man was born equal” in Abraham Lincoln’s The Emancipation Proclamation. Prejudice should not be thrown upon the black people; they have their own right, own personality and own status. The world composes of various races, as a melt-pot, faces of different colors may get along well with each other and melt together harmoniously, which was demonstrated in the happy ending of the description. On the other hand, according to the perspective of humanity, the teacher praised by the author is a very embodiment of this sort of humanity. Her sincere and equal attitude toward the black should be kept on everyone’s mind. Moreover, apart from her active influence upon the little child as a role of teacher, her openness and justice differs her from those who wear color glasses to observe the world, which underlines her unique greatness.
To put all in a nutshell, the passage reveals a conflict between the black and the white, but the sense of justice and comprehensiveness together as a bond that can harmony the two.