Root Magic

If their farm is a place in which Gullah culture is respected and celebrated, the school is the place in which Jez and Jay must explicitly contend with the outside world. For Jez, it is a place where she struggles socially but excels academically, while it is the opposite for Jay. However, both sets of difficulties don’t stop them from attending, even though Jez especially articulates that her social troubles are enough that she is willing to skip school. Janey views it as an opportunity for the twins to prepare for the future, telling her children, “You must, must, must go to school […] So you have a chance at a future” (132). She does not wish for them to get stuck by being seen as uneducated.

As a young adult novel, Root Magic uses the school to portray the struggles that Gullah Geechee children may have experienced for being different. Additionally, Doc also explains that he was ridiculed because “we were poor. And I was skinny. And our skin was dark” (140). Just like in the adult world, Black children also experienced discrimination from members of their own community. Royce also alludes to the dangers faced by students who were the first to integrate with white schools in the wake of Brown v.