Isabella Shiel

Mrs.Dougherty

AP Language

October 18, 2022

Systemic Prejudice in Adolescence

Education. One of the most debated, controversial topics that depicts one's “future”.

Systemically, education is different in all communities, affecting all of kids ' futures. However

sometimes one can attempt to break out of the system built against them, and that's exactly what

Alexie did. In the story “Indian Education” written by famous writer Sherman Alexie, he tells the

story of his education. A young Indian boy growing up on a reservation, attending tribal school,

trying to escape the future already determined for him and his native classmates. He makes the

ultimate decision to enhance his brain and pursue a better education, at an all-white school,

etching with privilege and racism. Recording his encounters, progress, and livelihood. Sherman

Alexie uses organization, diction, and details to highlight the hypocrisy of one's systemic

prejudicial upbringing, affecting their life, struggles, and choices to overcome that adversity.

Through organization the author emphasizes his childhood teaching’s, positive and

negative, relaying his vital story. An example of this is that Alexie’s story contains 13 sections,

12 sections for every grade 1st-12th when he documents his key memories from the years, and a

post-script. Each of these sections show a small period of his life in which he learned more and

more about himself, and those around him. This specific formation of his story engages the
reader more and acknowledges the prejudice against him becoming more pronounced through his

years, whereas in 8th grade, he talks about the white girls taking advantage of food, “whispers of

anorexia and bulimia”, comparing it to his home life where they were “happy to have food” and

grateful for the calories he could consume . These first issues he noticed were important, as they

were his earliest memorable problems he noticed, however nothing compared to the big picture.

Later on, in the 11th grade section his basketball team loses, earning the sports page headline

“INDIANS LOSE AGAIN”, referring to the team mascot. Noticing his culture and race was

represented as a stereotypical mascot, Alexie goes on in disparity, saying “Go ahead and tell me

none of this is supposed to hurt me very much.” This issue like the previous revolves around

systemic prejudice, but it was much more severe. This headline felt like a personal attack on

him, being the only Indian on the team, and an attack on his race, constantly losing against the

oppression of society. This organization provides how over the years he notices more, and more,

worse, and worse things about the society he lives in. Alexie uses the same organizational

method in sections First Grade, and Twelfth Grade. Throughout First Grade Alexie gets bullied

heavily by other Indian boys, “they stole my glasses…...They pushed me down”( First Grade),

helping him learn his lessons to stand up for himself; whereas in Twelfth Grade, he notices none

of these boys did well in life, and beating on him was their only sense of superiority.

Organizationally Alexie displays the sorrows of ill-treatment chronologically increasing through

each section, allowing the reader to fully embrace his more mature knowledge of why they beat

him up, to why they didn’t graduate or succeed. Alexie realizes many things over his childhood,

gradually getting more and more intense. For example in Second Grade, his issue was his teacher

being a racist prude and forcing him to “stand straight for fifteen minutes eagle-armed with

books in each hand” (Second Grade). While this issue is substantial, it barely compares to the
issue in Seventh Grade, where a girl who lived on the reservation was raped by her father, and

although being white “ not one word was made of their color” (Seventh Grade). Many people

went on to say “ Just Indians being Indians,” exemplifying the stereotypical image people

assume of Indians. These two issues, both affect Alexie and help shape his life, however as a

young child the issue is what he thinks is a teacher not liking him, to the seventh where he deals

with issues of his people, and attacks on his culture.

Alexie also uses vulgar diction to highlight the systemic prejudice he faces, and the hurt

that has been faced due to the institution itself. These specific words and phrases tell a story

within themselves of struggles, adversity, and hypocrisy. For example Alexie tells the story of

“Wally Jim” an Indian man with a steady, good home life, who killed himself by driving into a

tree. He then goes on to quote the officer's question “ Why’d he do it?(Tenth Grade)” his internal

answer being “everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough(Tenth Grade). The

detached diction of the word “everything” shows how all around them there are people that hate

him due to his skin color, officers, officials, teachers who give him unnecessary adversity and

struggles everyday, highlighting the prejudice in which they face daily. During this same scenario

after claiming verbally they don't know why he did it, he internally claims “we understand

completely(Tenth Grade). The united diction of “we” represents every Native American person,

all going through the same broken system, all facing prejudicial issues, all having bad thoughts

caused by the so-called “failure” they always seem to have. Even in the beginning of Alexie's life

he faced this form of systemic prejudice. After being punished by a teacher for a piece of artwork

Alexie embarrassingly “ stood alone in the corner, faced the wall and waited for the punishment

to end. I’m still waiting ( Third Grade ). The low, shameful diction of the words “still waiting”

intensifies the unfortunate fact that this cycle never ends, he will never be treated or seen as
completely equal, there will always be people against him. The punishments never end in a

world full of hatred, racism, hypocrisy, and systemic prejudice.

In every part of a story the author will give lots of details, mini stories, and brief

moments to highlight their main point. Alexie’s being the ill treatment he received all the way

through his life, and what he did with that oppression. For example, he chose to get out of the

tribal school, to pursue a real education, to learn arithmetic and language the “proper way”. He

makes the decision to change after seventh grade, going to an all-white junior high, facing racism

from mascots, and teachers who look down upon him daily. All the way through Alexie persisted

however, earning him the title of valedictorian, which would have never been accomplished

staying at the tribal school where by graduation he says “ my former classmates graduate, a few

can’t read, one or two are just given attendance diplomas, most look forward to the parties”

(Twelfth Grade ). This important detail confirms the systemic prejudice and hypocrisy they face.

Why are we going to judge a culture for not being at a high-level of education if we as a society

provide them with such lacking resources due to systemic racism. Everybody in human-nature is

instinctive to judge those around us, nonetheless this does not give anybody the right to

stereotype. In Alexie’s story a Chicano teacher ran up to them at a school dance, after Alexie had

passed out, and asked what he had been drinking, claiming he knew “all about these Indian kids.

They start drinking real young” ( Ninth Grade). Alexie goes on to write the powerful claim,

“Sharing dark skin doesn't necessarily make two men brothers'' (Ninth Grade). This hypocrisy

and assumption Alexie faces daily with his ethnicity goes to show the systemic racism in our

society, where one's first thought is not if Alexie is ok, not if he needs help, but what he had been

“drinking”. This was not the case at all, Alexie was later diagnosed with diabetes, and passed out

due to medical reasons, yet was ambushed and stereotyped due to his ethnicity, not helped,
proving the systemic prejudice he faces daily. Further he talks about his life back on the

reservation, how his mom used to wait in line for canned beef, and other accommodations. He

unhappily remembers these cans of food that “even the dogs wouldn’t eat” but disturbingly

admits “we ate it day after day and grew skinny from self-pity” ( Eighth Grade ). Alexie

compares this situation to the white girls not eating, or purging at school, exclaiming “There is

more than one way to starve” (Eighth Grade). This comparative detail separates him from the

people he goes to school with, he was trying to eat, wanted to eat with all his heart, but couldn't

get the nutrition from old, canned goods that he got served, outlining the systemic prejudice the

institution has for his people, and their needs.

Alexie continuously strived for excellence. A star-athlete, valedictorian of his real

high-school, a role model to those back home. Nevertheless facing loads of challenges, racism,

hypocrisy, and systemic prejudice. He highlights these points of adversity in his life using

organizational methods, vulgar diction, and saddening details, going to show his struggles and

achievements throughout highschool. People of color, Indians in specific, have been getting the

end of the stick since the beginning of time, our society has let them struggle for much too long

and it is time for change. Everybody should have access to a good education, to a real meal, this

is what we should strive for.