When the narrators reflect on her past, the reader is given important details about Mama growing up as an African American girl before the civil rights movement, which played a huge role in Mama's formation. submissive and uneducated 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 myself never had an education. After the second year, the school was closed. Don’t ask me why: in 1927, mixed-race people asked fewer questions than today.” (157). Growing up in this era 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 took place in the 1970s. Additionally, Mama's explains, "Who can imagine me looking into the eyes of a strange white man? It seems to me that I always spoke to them with one foot raised in flight, my head turned in the direction furthest from them” (155). This statement reveals the narrator's fear of white people and explains her gentle and shy character. Growing up before the civil rights era obviously had a profound impact on