What do you mean by that? There are any number of ‘coloured’ children in that first year he attended Punahou, which one would he have chosen to bully?
I’m inclined to believe it’s more likely the class photograph wasn’t available to the author when that paragraph was written. ‘Coretta’ seems an odd name for a girl of polynesian/japanese/filipino background, don’t you think?
‘Coretta’ sounds more like a memory of Ayres than a recollection of zero. I’m NOT defending zero, but the correct context is important.
Zero WAS NOT the second coloured child to attend that class.
Coretta was the name of Martin Luther Kind’s wife IIRC. Ayers was using a classic (in his mind) “black” name. More mythology....It’s a very unusual name, never read or heard of it attached to any other human.