Revolt of the Evil Fairies

                   In the short story “Revolt of the Evil Fairies” The main character is a student in the Booker T Washington school and wants to be Prince Charming in their annual grand dramatic offering, But there was one problem... He had a dark complexion and everyone knew that if you had a darker skin complexion you couldn't get a lead role. I think the theme of the short story is discrimination because they are treating people differently based on their complexion. The author makes you think about discrimination to a whole different level, that it's not only through obvious races and religions but also in smaller groups like in the story discrimination is going on between lighter and darker skinned black people.
 One example of this is on pg 30 “This was very important because the good fairies wore white costumes, and the evil fairies black. And strangely enough the good fairies usually had white folk features.” A little later on it also says that the evil fairies are usually darker in complexion. This supports discrimination being the main theme of the book because because they choose people for the parts by their skin color, to make sure that their skin color matches the color of their costume. I think the author adds that detail in the story because he is trying to emphasize the schools wrong ways, and to give a short history on how the school play always is.

Another example of this is on pg 30 “And therein lay my personal tragedy. I made the best grades in my class, I was the lead debater. But I could never be Prince Charming because I was black.”This shows discrimination because, the main character gets the BEST grades in his class and the LEAD debater in the school yet even with all of those accomplishments, it all comes back to your complexion/skin color. This teaches you a lot about his school, since it is once again one of the details that the author added in to emphasize the issue at hand.

 The final example of discrimination in this short story is on pg 30 “ For our grand dramatic offering was only a reflection of our daily community life in Hopkinsville the “yallers” had the best of everything they held most of the teaching jobs in school, they were the doctors, lawyers and insurance men.” This shows that in this story it is not only in the school but it is also going on in everyday life. But in a way the town is basically built (socially) like a bigger version of the school. The lighter complexioned people get first shot at all opportunities and the darker complexioned people sometimes don't even get a shot at all.