The $495 baby-blue cashmere sweater that so transfixes Izzy when she and Imani stroll through Prestige, the upscale dress shop at the mall, symbolizes Izzy’s introduction to the reality of racial profiling. Until the confrontation with store security, Izzy has been aware only that she was biracial and that her olive skin reflected a decidedly nonthreatening racial identity. Izzy, at the threshold age of 11, had lived a sheltered life in matters of race. Her parents professed a love for each other that had nothing to do with racial differences. In fact, her parents were able to provide her with a protective home life in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods and public schools where the kind of blatant racism that John Mark confesses he grew up with was simply not in evidence. Until she goes into the fancy dress shop, Izzy has never felt threatened or vulnerable simply because of her racial identity.

When Izzy realizes as the two innocently walk about the displays that they are being tailed by a security guard, Izzy initially thinks the guard is following them to help with their selections until the guard says: “This is a store for those who…can afford” (172). The

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