Slay

Through Kiera’s story, Morris explores the difficulties of Navigating Physical and Virtual Spaces Impacted by Racism and Exclusion, specifically for Black people. Simply sharing the same physical space with white people makes Kiera feel pressured to modify her behavior around them. For example, she employs strategies like code-switching at her white-majority school. Kiera’s classmates exacerbate her feelings of being an outsider by treating her like “the Black authority in the room” (175), such as when Harper asks her about locs instead of conducting her own research. In addition, discrimination impacts Kiera’s relationships with other Black characters. For example, Malcolm subscribes to a form of internalized racism called respectability politics, which Kiera defines as “that BS about some Black people being worthier of respect than others based on education, occupation, or intellectualism” (316). For much of the novel, Kiera tries to meet Malcolm’s elitist standards. She goes along with his plan to apply to neighboring historically Black colleges and hides her misgivings about whether this is the path she wants for her future. In the physical spaces she inhabits on a daily basis, Kiera curates her behavior because of others’ narrow views of Blackness.

Much of the novel focuses on