After conducting the Sookmyung Research Institute of Humanities HK+ “Age of Disgust, Response of Humanities” agenda project, we publish the related research theses in professional journals in Korea and abroad.
Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” (1972) depicts the journey of eight Black children from their poor neighborhood to the famous toy store F.A.O. Schwarz, on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Reflecting Bambara’s upbringing in Harlem, the group’s trip to Fifth Avenue exposes how economic inequities are entan gled with race in American society. The contrast with their poor neighborhood— "slum"—in downtown Manhattan implies the hidden physical divide between Black and white, as well as (and frequently overlapping) poor and rich. The most obviously shocking realization for the children navigating the upscale commercial district is the relative value of money and the capitalist forces that take over the traditional role of religion. The field trip thus turns into a cap italist pilgrimage, with the children visiting the commercially sacred place and experiencing the power of money as replacing a Christian God.