Here, she said, put this on your head.
She handed me a hat.
You 'bout as white as your dad,
and you gone stay like that.
Aunt Sugar rolled her nylons down
around each bony ankle,
and I rolled down my white knee socks
This first line hints that the small girl in the poem is of a mixed race, but has fair skin like her father. The fact that her Aunt Sugar says, “And you gone stay like that” shows the importance of being white or even “light-skinned” during this time.
Flounder