People who do not know any better are frightened when they stray into the neighborhood of Mango Street. They think they will be attacked, perhaps stabbed, but this is stupid of them. The inhabitants know that the people who look sinister—Davey the Baby’s brother, Eddie V, and Fat Boy—are harmless enough. When surrounded by other brown-skinned people, they feel safe, but they themselves are frightened when they drive “into a neighborhood of another color.”