Makena: See Me, Hear Me, Know Me

A Powerful Thing

Later that week, Mr. Djondo’s class has a substitute teacher—Ms. Allyn. She hurries through attendance, not taking the time to pronounce Makena’s name correctly. She doesn’t even give Makena time to correct her. When Ms. Allyn mistakenly calls Makena “Adeline,” Makena does correct her. But Ms. Allyn scolds her for disrupting class.

Later, Makena reflects that not everybody who is Black is the same, so it’s important to see people for who they are, not for just the color of their skin.

Afterwards, Makena goes shopping with Maritza and Evette. Makena gets her hand at styling Maritza, who ends up loving the changes! Although Maritza can’t buy the clothes that day, she takes a photo to commemorate the outing.