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How Does The Story It's That It Hurt By Thomas Rivera

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The short story “It’s That It Hurts” by Tomas Rivera follows the story of a young Mexican migrant child and his family trying to build a new life in the USA. He currently lives in a town where his family has sent him to school. In school, he experiences constant discrimination and is often made to be embarrassed and angry. After getting into multiple fights, he is expelled from school and is wondering what he should do next. In Tomas Rivera’s “It’s That It Hurts,” the “it” that hurts is the systemic racism the protagonist faces. The protagonist faces systemic racism when he overhears the principal on the phone talking about expelling him. “No, I guess not, they could care less if I expel him… They need him in the fields.” “Well, I just hope our boys don’t make too much out about it to their parents. I guess I’ll just throw him out.” (26) This can be interpreted to mean that the principal is making an assumption about the protagonist and is assuming since he is a migrant Mexican, his family needs him in the fields and they don’t care if he is expelled. However, the principal worries about the other kids involved in the fight, hoping they won’t make a big fuss about it to their parents. It proves that the principal has a bias towards the other kids over the Mexican migrant, giving an example of systemic racism. …show more content…

This causes him to be embarrassed and angry. “He’d just stare and when they put me in the corner apart from everyone he kept turning to look at me, and then he’d make a gesture with his finger. I was mad but mostly I felt embarrassed because I was sitting away from everyone where they could see me better.” (23) From this we can assume that the teacher put him in the corner because he was different, basically segregating him from the rest of the class, where his classmates could see him and bully

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