In Grace Paley’s memoir “Traveling”, Paley ignores the then-societal belief that people who differ in skin color were “separate but equal”. Grace Paley compares two separate moments of her life to explain . Paley first tells the story of her mother’s resistance against the segregation of buses. As part of a passive protest, Paley’s mother voluntarily sits in the “colored section” and refuses to sit in the “white section”. Then fifteen years later, Paley finds herself in a similar situation. She offers an exhausted African-American woman her seat on the bus, completely forgetting about the strict border on color. At first, the woman feels uneasy, but Paley offers to hold her sleeping baby. The woman  obliged and placed the sleeping baby on Paley’s lap. After receiving several looks and comments about holding “that thing”, Paley remains unfazed. These moments reflect that both Paley and her mother do not see color and treat everyone as their equals. This memoir teaches that a person is a person, regardless of color, gender, sexuality, economic status, religious views, or political views.