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“A Shameful Youth” The excerpt entitled “Shame” by Dick Gregory paints an accurate picture of the life of a typical black child, and how his family struggled just to survive. Gregory recalls a time in his life when he was in elementary school and the first time he felt “shame” in his life. This was especially painful for Gregory because Helene Tucker, the girl he liked, was present when he was humiliated in front of the entire class. One might think as a child Gregory never thought about the embarrassment of being in a relief program and having to go to the “Worthy Boys Annual Christmas Dinner”, wear the same brown and orange mackinaw that many other black children at the time had to wear, or have a truck deliver food to him instead of going to the market because he didn’t have the money, however after his teacher exposed the truth about his lack of a father in front of his class, and more importantly Helene Tucker, the entire load of all the shameful things in his life fell upon him.
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