How we cite our quotes: (Entry. Paragraph)
Quote #4
First, the discrimination against him. Second, and almost more grievous, his discrimination against himself; his contempt for the blackness that he associates with his suffering; his willingness to sabotage his fellow Negroes because they are part of the blackness he has found so painful. (9.35)
It's probably hard to believe that being black isn't a bad thing when everything that you read, every movie you see, and a large chunk of the people that you meet, all say that blackness is evil.
Quote #5
My first vague, favorable impression that it was not as bad as I had thought it would be came from courtesies of the whites toward the Negro in New Orleans. But this was superficial. All the courtesies in the world do not cover up the one vital and massive discourtesy—that the Negro is treated not even as a second-class citizen, but as a tenth-class one. His day-to-day living is a reminder of his inferior status. (10.1)
Why do you think that Griffin says that black people are treated as tenth class citizens, and not even second-class ones? That's a pretty big downgrade. What things in a black person's day-to-day living constantly remind them that they are inferior?
Quote #6
Nothing can describe the withering horror of this. You feel lost, sick at heart before such unmasked hatred, not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light. You see a kind of insanity, something so obscene the very obscenity of it (rather than its threat) terrifies you. It was so new I could not take my eyes from the man's face. I felt like saying: "What in God's name are you doing to yourself?" (10.57)
This is really interesting. Griffin says that the hate stare is not threatening, but he hates it because the person is being obscene. Do you think that this is the way a black person would interpret this stare?