Dickerson expresses her anger in many ways and makes them very apparent to her readers. Although she is a very high standing educated black women her status can not save her nephew from the harms of the world today. Her anger almost seems to take over her in such a way that it takes over her life and the way she views the rest of her culture. She is angry in the sense that she took the initiative to make her life better and work hard so that she did not have to struggle in life and earn a living the right way. Her way of living she did not have to get things by stealing and robbing her own family the way the man that shot Johnny did. His life is worthless in her eyes. Because he cannot do anything for himself he has to try to better his life by ruining others. In Dickerson’s eyes he is the cause of the places like the ghettos and the reason why people cannot own nice things because he is the one that ruins things for the rest of the world. She hates the fact that even though she took the initiative to do something for her to make her stronger, she cannot help her family when it is needed the most because the things that she has done for herself cannot fix what has happened and it frustrates her. Her anger stems from the fact that someone that is just like her could do something like this to another person. This “brother” that she talks about, to her is an outcast and someone that is worthless. He doesn’t know how to work hard for anything. She mentions the fact that mothers tend to raise their daughters and merely love their sons. Which to her means that they teach their daughters right and wrong but when their sons do something evil, they turn the other way and pretend like it never happened. This to her is why Johnny got shot.