How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A white man had been killed during a robbery, and though two of the robbers had been killed on the spot, one had been captured, and he, too, would have to die. (1.1)
One little adjective shows how the balance of power and the scales of justice in the novel depend on skin color: white. Without having to come out and say it, this sentence lets us know that if the murdered man had been black, things would have turned out differently for the captured robber.
Quote #2
"I have no idea." He stared at me, and I realized that I had not answered him in the proper manner. "Sir," I added. (3.45)
In this scene Grant shows how race determines everything about a person in their relationships with the world, even the way they are supposed to speak to others. He knows that he is supposed to call Henri "Sir", because as a white man he is Grant's superior.
Quote #3
There, instead of houses and trees, there were fishing wharves, boat docks, nightclubs, and restaurants for whites. There were one or two nightclubs for colored, but they were not very good. (4.8)
Talk about separate but unequal. Even the geography of the town, with the wide variety of establishments for white people and small, undesirable selection of those for black people, reflects the racial inequality.