Jordan’s Bus Ride Symbol Analysis

Jordan’s long bus ride to school every day symbolizes the lengths he, as a Black student, must go to to try and fit in at RAD. As Jordan passes through several neighborhoods from Washington Heights to Riverdale, he must constantly change how he’s dressed and how he behaves to fit in and look appropriately threatening—or nonthreatening. In Washington Heights, for instance, he feels like he must wear his hoodie with the hood up and wear sunglasses so that nobody messes with him. By the time he reaches Riverdale, though, he has to put his hood down and ditch the sunglasses, and he can’t draw in his sketchbook. In this affluent, predominantly White environment, he fears people will think he looks too aggressive in a hoodie and sunglasses, and he suspects people will think he’s going to “tag the bus” if he has writing or drawing materials out. Putting his sketchbook away, and changing his accessories, allows Jordan to come off as a kid like any other, rather than a frightening Black boy intent on carrying out property damage or violence. Jordan finds all this exhausting,  but it’s what he feels he must do in order to fit in. With this, the novel comments on how hard Black students (and other students of color) must work to integrate in predominantly White environments, which aren’t as welcoming and accepting as the White majority often would like to think they are.