When the narrators reflect on her past, the reader is given important details of Mama growing up as an African American girl before the civil rights movement, which played a role enormous in shaping Mama's life as a submissive and ignorant character. This is essential because “Everyday Use” is essentially about racial identity, or how racial oppression plays a vital role in who we are. For example, the narrator explains: “I never had an education. After the second grade the school was closed. Don't ask me why: in 1927 colors asked fewer questions than now." (157). Growing up in this time of discrimination and segregation, Mom learned not to assert her opinions or question her reality. Clearly, this shaped the woman Mama was when the story was set in the 1970s. Additionally, Mama's explains, “Who can imagine me looking into the eyes of a strange white man? I seem to have always spoken to them with one foot raised in the air, with my head turned in the direction furthest from them” (155). This statement reveals the narrator's fear of white people and explains his meek and shy character. Growing up before the civil rights era obviously had a profound impact