Focus on a particular phase in the development of the ethnic identity of a protagonist, in this case Remi from Simi Bedford’s Yoruba Girl Dancing. If you have read the novel, you already know that the development of her ethnicity proceeds in several stages. Be careful not to mistake how OTHERS see her ethnicity with how SHE does. When others make disparaging or exoticizing comments about her, that says a lot about them but nothing about her. Those comments are only significant in that they may or may not influence Remi’s feelings and thoughts about her own identity, and what you want to focus on is how she reacts to such comments or how she processes them.
