Chapter 13: One Hundred Percent Intelligent Black Child: Black and Exceptional in Mathematics

One of the earliest memories that I have in mathematics transpired after I enrolled in a predominantly White school in metro Atlanta. Though I had not dwelled on it much, this was the first time that my race had been made conspicuous and salient, at least as a personal revelation. I did not have any bad experiences in this class from what I can remember, but I do recall noticing that the students on this side of the city no longer looked like me.

During instruction, I found something remarkably fascinating about the numerical patterns involved in the memorization of the times tables. All throughout the year the class would practice these timed activities as a way to drill multiplication facts, and I remember practicing at home because I yearned for more stickers to place on our achievement board at the front of the room. Every time a student excelled on one of these timed tests, he or she would get a mastery sticker and would subsequently advance to the next level in the following week.