The Sellout

Charisma Molina, the assistant principal at Chaff Middle School (and Marpessa’s best friend), utters, “Too many Mexicans”—a phrase people in Dickens use to scapegoat Mexican people for a variety of behaviors, whether it’s attending a racist rally or losing a bet on a horse race. Charisma is Mexican, and she comes to Me’s farm to smoke potent marijuana and persuade him to participate in her school’s Career Day. Me agrees to attend only after Charisma tells him that Marpessa will be there.

For Career Day, Marpessa takes the kids on a thrilling bus ride, performing stunts worthy of the Fast and Furious street-racing movie franchise. Me brings a cow onto the baseball field and demonstrates the process of castration to a group of opinionated children. One of the kids, Sheila Clark, volunteers to perform the surgery, and Me lets her. To control the animal, Me puts him in a headlock.

After the castration, a white teacher, Mr. Edmunds, quits. While on Marpessa’s bus, Sheila saw the “PRIORITY SEATING FOR WHITES” sign and told Mr. Edmunds he could have her seat. After taking it, he realized what he had done and had a fit. Crying, he walked off into the rainstorm.