How we cite our quotes: (Entry. Paragraph)
Quote #10
"I'll tell you how it is here. We'll do business with you people. We'll sure as hell screw your women. Other than that, you're just completely off the record as far as we're concerned. And the quicker you people get that through your heads, the better off you'll be." (15.16)
There are a ton of things going on here, but let's just look at a couple of words. "We'll sure as hell screw your women." Notice that he says screw. That's not even a neutral word, like sex. Screw implies something vulgar. It also ignores the idea of love. So for this guy, black women are simply there like sex toys to be used. Classy.
Quote #11
The white racist is bewildered and angered by such an attitude, because the dignity of the Negro's course of action emphasizes the indignity of his own. It is a challenge to him to needle the Negro into acts of a baser nature, into open physical conflict. He will walk up and blow cigarette smoke in the Negro's face, hoping the Negro will strike out at him. Then he could repress the Negro violently and claim it was only self-defense. (16.2)
Oh, this just sucks. Because white Southerners knew that getting attacked by a black man would basically ensure that the black man went to jail (or worse), they tried to provoke the black men into violence by being degrading dirtbags. Ugh. People are horrible.
Quote #12
"We must return to them their lawful rights, assure equality of justice—and then everybody leave everybody else to hell alone. Paternalistic—we show our prejudice in our paternalism—we downgrade their dignity." (20.50)
Paternalism is when someone stops someone else from doing something because they think they know better. When a mom stops a baby from sticking their finger into a socket, no one has a problem that. But when someone stops a fully grown adult from doing things that other adults can do, that's paternalism and it implies that person is too stupid to make choices for themselves.