Ashley is a senior in high school in L.A. in 1992. She is living the typical oblivious life of most teens. She is vaguely aware of the Rodney King riots and she knows that she should care, but she has more important things on her mind - a boy.Ashley really struggles with the messages that she is told about being a girl with an additional layer of being a Black girl. "First things first: be pretty. Never take up too much space; your breasts, arms, lips, hips, thighs, and even your nose should be just so. If your body should spill over just so or not quite fill it up, well, honestly, I don't know what to tell you. Just don't. Be a good girl, but not too good; nobody likes that girl. Laugh, but not too loud; you'll make them nervouse. No, don't be sour, never that, even if you're having a bad day, month, year, life. Be smart, but never smarter than; or they'll think you're uppity. Be more. Yes, that's it! Practice! Dream! Rise! Wait, not so high, girl! Those stars, they aren't meant for you."Ashley goes to an elite private high school in LA. And she is also Black. There are other Black Kids at her high school, but they are mostly on scholarships for sports or academics. Ashley is there because she is wealthy. She hangs out with the white kids and doesn't really think much about it until she starts a rumor about one of the Black Kids. She knows almost immediately that it is bad. But she doesn't know how to fix it. After Ashley's friends find out a secret about her, they turn against her. The only person who is there for her is LaShawn and LaShawn is the boy that she started a rumor about.The Black Kids really is the epitome of drama in high school in the 90s. I loved all the nostalgia as a 90s girl!One of the things that really struck me was that nothing has changed much since the Rodney King beating. "When activists argued that choke holds were proving to be unnecessarily deadly force, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates actually said this about how Blacks and Latinos responded to choke holds: 'We may be dinging that in some blacks when it is applied, the veins or arteries fo not open up as fast as normal people'. Normal People.""Bill Cosby appeared via a prerecorded PSA and tells the rioters to stop what they're doing and watch the final episode of The Cosby Show on NBC. ... It's condescending as hell. Even to me. And I'm not burning anything here in my living room overlooking the ocean."