Judging people and treating them as a problem, or threat, based solely on their race create the tension and near tragedy of Romiette and Julio. During an argument between Julio and his father Luis, in which Luis forbids his son from pursuing a relationship with Romi because she is a Black girl, Julio argues that his generation is different from his father’s: “Our generation looks at people as humans, not as races” (151). Through the love story between a Black girl and a Hispanic boy, the novel investigates the toxic logic of racism.

Racism defines the rationale behind the gangs that rule schools both in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Cincinnati, Ohio. These gangs only see race. According to Thomas Jefferson High School’s Devildogs, Julio is a threat because he is Hispanic: “We don’t need no wetbacks movin’ in here and takin’ over our territory! We own this area” (56). Without getting to know Julio as an individual, the Devildogs regard him as a problem because of his ethnicity. Later, when Julio tries to tell his father Luis about his feelings for Romi, Luis rejects Romi despite not having met her. She is deemed problematic because of her race—or, more specifically, because Luis lost his first girlfriend to a Black gang.