The Freedom Writers Diary

During lunchtime, this student sees a fight break out after someone yells “Fuck Niggers” and manages to stay out of the violent outbreak. The principal suspended an African-American and a Hispanic boy, which, instead of solving the problem, only made tensions between the two groups stronger.

After school, the student sees another fight break out when the bus arrives at the bus stop: African-Americans against Hispanics. In the end, the group of twenty African-American boys is forced to get off the bus and, while they are waiting for the next one, they start beating a Hispanic boy who happened to walk by, unaware of what had just happened. The student watches as the boy is left unconscious and the group of attackers is arrested. He wonders why he didn’t do anything to stop the violence, and realizes that he was too scared of being hit himself. He feels scared that Ms. Gruwell will get mad at him if she finds out he was not self-reliant in this moment, and he hopes she never will.