White Water

Michael is a young black boy who lives in a segregated world, one world for the white people and one for the colored. One day, when Michael is hot and thirsty, he takes a drink from the fountains for black people. The water tasted like “nasty, muddy, gritty yuck.” He saw a white boy drinking from the white fountain and Michael began to imagine what the white water tasted like. He imagined white water was pure and cold. He could not get the idea that he must try the white water out of his head. Finally, he snuck over to the white fountain and took a sip. It tasted just like the colored water! Michael was caught drinking from the white fountain and he fell down. When he fell, he noticed that the same water pipe brought the same water to both fountains! An epiphany for him.

“The signs over the fountains had put a bad idea in my head. But they were a lie. If they weren't real, what else should I question? Maybe there were a lot of things—like that nasty old white water—that weren't true. That had nothing to do with nothing. Maybe everything I thought I couldn't do was just in my imagination, too. That's when I realized—I could do anything.

Now I knew. And from that day on, I wouldn't let anything stand in my way.”