The Hate Race: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

One day while in grade six, Maxine goes to the library, a place she views as a sanctuary due to its seclusion and the supervision of the librarian, Miss Richie. She asks Miss Richie for a book on Jamaica, which she is doing a project on. When Miss Richie gives her a book, she goes into a corner to read it. Most of the book is idyllic and vivid, but at the very end, there is a frank description of how Jamaicans are descended from enslaved people. Maxine realizes with horror that she is likely descended from enslaved people as well, which she confirms by looking in an atlas that her family has at home. She feels deeply ashamed of this heritage and wonders if everyone else mistreats her because they know that Black people were once enslaved.

Maxine works hard on her Jamaica project, focusing solely on its positive parts and deciding against including anything about its bloody history. Her teacher, Mrs. Dutton gives Maxine a 99.999% (as she never gives perfect scores). In class, Mrs. Dutton plays a Harry Belafonte song, which Maxine recognizes from Bordeaux’s record collection, and decides to include it in the school’s end-of-year concert. However, the night of the concert, Maxine is barraged by spitballs from boys in the rows behind her, and two of her white classmates dance on stage in Jamaican costumes. She leaves the concert despondent, watching her crush Lewis walk ahead of her.

Maxine recounts her relationship with Lewis. Although things were awkward after the Catch and Kiss incident, they’ve since become good friends who deal with their mutual crush on each other by teasing each other intensely. They have a friendly rivalry due to being close to the top of the class, but Lewis’s grades have always ultimately beat Maxine’s. Lewis eventually starts going out with Sara, a pretty blonde girl, and there is gossip of the two feeling each other up in the back of the school. Maxine still has a crush on Lewis, but she does not begrudge his relationship with Sara, as she understands it gives him social status that she will never be able to access.

Back at the end-of-year ceremony, Maxine takes her seat in the auditorium, trying to forget the concert. Lewis will be attending a different high school than her, so she enjoys watching him walk across stage to receive his award. The last award is for the dux (akin to a valedictorian), and Maxine is so busy glaring at the principal that she does not realize her name has been called. She realizes that her Jamaica project has made her dux. After she collects her award, another parent makes a comment about Maxine’s “luck,” insinuating that she only received the award as a diversity initiative. Maxine realizes that it is inconceivable to the man that she achieved the award herself—but she is still proud of herself.

When Maxine gets home, she spends the night reading the book she received as an award: The Family Book of Mary Claire, a novel about multiple generations of Anglo-Australian family. However, as Maxine reads, she becomes more and more uncomfortable with the novel’s treatment of race, with its portrayal of Aboriginal Australians as simple and dimwitted and its frequent use of racial slurs. Incensed, Maxine throws the book across her room.