#450 Brownies- ZZ Packer
This is the first story in Packer’s collection, Drinking
Coffee Elsewhere. A troupe of Brownies
(younger girl scouts if there is someone who doesn’t know what that is) attend
a camping weekend. They are from a predominantly black south Atlantic Suburb
and they fixate on an all white Troupe 909.
The “leader” of the girls says she heard a racial slur being thrown in
their direction, and she rouses the others into action.
What follows is a pretty great description of child
group/peer/tribal behavior. Social archetypes play their rolls: the leader, the
peacemaker, the troublemaker, the follower, the goody-two-shoes, quiet moral
one, etc. Although race is at the heart of the conflict, it does not seem to be
the heart of the meaning of this story (although the race dynamics shouldn’t be
overlooked). Group activity and peer pressure are a huge part of growing up,
especially at a Girl Scout camp.
Notable Passages: “The word ‘secret’ had a built-in
importance, the modifier form of the word carried more clout than the noun. A
secret meant nothing; it was like gossip: just a bit of unpleasant knowledge
about someone who happened to be someone other than yourself. A secret meeting,
or a secret club was entirely different.”
“Even though I didn’t want to fight, was afraid of fighting,
I felt like I was a part of the rest of the troop; like I was defending
something.”
“When you’ve been
made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others.”
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