"I raise an eyebrow. 'Nah.' Dammit. Proper English. I sit up straight. 'I mean, no, ma’am.'" (Thomas 98)
After witnessing the shooting of Khalil, Starr goes to the police for investigation on the case.In an extremely sad and nervous mental state, she still has to stay calm and surpress her authentic behaviors. This is because often, society associate people with dialect with low intelligence.
This exemplifies code-switching that happens to Starr and a lot of people in real life. Starr puts on a facade when she faces the police because she has to act according to society's expectations. Starr behaves "properly" because in her upbringing, she is educated to counter the stereotype for black Americans being "hood". Connecting to the rest of the story, countering stereotypes indeed make relationships with the people around one more peaceful. When Starr is "Williamson Starr", she avoids trouble and makes perfunctory friends. Yet, to form deeply connected relationships, being one's true self is more important than countering stereotypes. Stereotypes are inaccurate most of the times, but this does not mean that one has to conceal their own identity just for the purpose of assimilating to the social environment. Thus, stereotypes hampers the development of a positive relationship.