How we cite our quotes: (Entry. Paragraph)
Quote #7
"They can't discuss it," he said. "It's a shame but all they do is get mad whenever you bring it up. I'll never understand it. They're blocked on that one subject. I've lived here over five years now—and they're good neighbors; but if I mention race with any sympathy for the Negro, they just tell me I'm an 'outsider' and don't understand about the Negroes. What's there to understand?" (12.16)
Almost all of the talk about community in this book is about black people, so it's interesting to get this peek into white communities. Apparently this Northern transplant doesn't qualify for entrance into the community of white Southerners.
Quote #8
"No… We can't do that any longer either. We're supposed to get our rights in a proper way. And try to understand that it's hard for them, too, to change around from the old ways. We've got plenty of old Uncle Toms that don't want things changed any more than the whites. You can give them two dollars and they'll pull the string that sends us all to hell. They're a disgrace to our race. And then we've got plenty of young smart-aleck people that don't want nothing except the chance to "get even" with the whites […] they're full of hate and piss and it's a God's shame. They're just as much Judases as the Uncle Toms." (13.127)
Here we get two kinds of people who are described as messing with the black community. There are self-hating blacks, who see no reason to change the system of racism. And then there are black people who see violence as the solution to the problem. Why are they a problem for the black community?
Quote #9
Where the Negro has lacked unity of purpose elsewhere, he has in Montgomery rallied to the leadership of King. Where he has been degraded elsewhere by unjust men of both races, here he is resisting degradation. (16.3)
How does this description of Montgomery differ from other cities that Griffin has visited?