cassie's encounter with lillian jean simms follows immediately after the barnett incident. does this complete her education in how her colour and class are discriminated against? is her humiliation completed now?

I think that it certainly reinforces her sense of injustice for blacks. Cassie's journey to Strawberry is a metaphor for her exposure to a wider world beyond her home. She is disappointed when she sees Strawberry because it is a small, shabby place. Racism in Strawberry is more apparent and more acceptable than it is in Cassie's smaller town. In Strawberry, Big Ma is not a supreme power but instead must bow to the will of a powerful white man, no matter how much she might disagree with him. When Cassie cries at the end of the chapter, her tears represent her loss of innocence.