While reading Walkers piece I felt an immediate connection. It was the end of the second paragraph that caught my attention most abruptly. Walker wrote, "she assumed of course (I guess) that I did not wish to ride with her because she was white...yet I was struck by her passivity, her patience as she sat on the truck alone and ignored..."(86). This passage caught my attention because it was something that I could relate to on a personal basis. If I were Luna in that situation I may have thought my whiteness the reason Alice Walker would not ride with me. More so though I realized that I often am conscious of the fact that people might assume my actions to be racially mot

Racial consciousness is something that develops in a person or group over time. As it develops, they become more assuming and more aware of interracial interaction. If you are not aware of racial discrimination you tend to overlook it and/or ignore it. Although it is not always the fault of the person but rather ignorance, racial consciousness is a behavior that needs to be learned. Maybe someday it will be automatic or irrelevant but in order to progress it is necessary in today's society.

As the essay went on I felt more and more connected to Luna. By the end I felt so in touch with her character that I could provide Alice Walker with the questions she wanted answered and even more-so that I could provide closure to the story. I wanted to just call her up and tell her that Luna was really raped and she had no reason to doubt her. Explain to her why she didn't mention it for five years; that she finally felt that bond in a friendship that goes beyond race. I felt the courage that Luna must've had to test the strength of the bond and the hurt when it broke.

Interracial relationships are so much more difficult and complex than same race relations. This can be directly correlated to the long-term intergenerational discrimination against minorities through the power of whiteness. In Advancing Luna- and Ida B. Wells, Walker illustrates her personal struggle with an interracial relationship. She showed

Some common words found in the essay are:
Alice Walker, Luna- Ida, Ida Walker, Final Paper, alice walker, Advancing Luna-, advancing luna- ida, short story, luna- ida, advancing luna-, caught attention, white privilege, aware racial, racial consciousness,
Approximate Word count = 963
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)