Does the author's create a setting that seems real and believable in the novel I know why the caged bird sings?

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahahaahaha howard runs away like a coward

The segregation of the whites from the black and the treatment they recieve from the so called superior race is symbolic to the idea of caged birds as presented in the title of the novel. I remember an instance when Maya herself mentions that she had never seen a white person until a certain age, also the school they studied in had only three or so coloured students. Hence, this calls for how the black people were in a cage, amidst the whites all around them. They had no real freedom in any sense.