s, and especially black females, in the South, and may also be part of a communal suffering, but it is made worse by her individual sensitivity: "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult" (Angelou 6).
This special sensitivity, of course, is what saves Angelou by connecting her to other blacks suffering the same harsh life. She and her family and other blacks are beneath poor whites on the socioeconomic ladder, with even black adults like her beloved Uncle and grandmother having to endure the racism of poor white children: "Maya survived the humiliation, but the scars still remain" (Lisandrelli 19). Heaped upon racism is the harsh daily struggle to simply survive:
In Stamps Maya witnessed others beaten down by life. At dusk, when the cotton truck dropped off the workers, Maya saw evidence of their d
...