How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Them's my girls. They don't care what I look like. They know the only difference between my color and theirs is that the slave master who owned my family raped my great-great-grandma instead of theirs. And like my dad says, that ain't nothing to celebrate or be stuck up about. (38.21)
This is a pretty stark conclusion, but it's true—Tanisha might have a more mixed race background than her friends, but it wasn't by anyone in her family tree's choice. Her friends know who she is and they love her for it.
Quote #8
I seem to be jealous of everyone and everything. Especially the friendships I see all around me. Leslie and Porscha, Lupe and Gloria, Tanisha and Diondra. It's enough to make me ill.
It's been forever since I had a best friend, let alone a boyfriend.
"Friendships don't just happen," Sterling tells me whenever I complain. "You have to reach out and make them." (50.6-8)
Sterling is right when he gives this advice to Amy. She's so darn closed off from everyone that she's never had much luck making friends. Heck, her only real friend is Sterling, who spends a whole lot of time trying to convert her to Christianity. Sterling means well, but we'd say it's time for him to branch out, too.
Quote #9
I tried to pretend like the move is no big deal, since Mom and Dad are so hot on it, especially Mom, who's been wanting her own house forever. But man, I'm dying. I got friends here that I've grown up and gone to school with all my life, and I fit in here, and you can't tell me there are guys with bleach-blond buzz cuts and earrings in Yorktown. (56.5)
Even though Steve doesn't look like the other kids at his Bronx high school, he still likes it there and fits in. He has friends and he doesn't want to change that, so while his parents might think they're giving him a better life, all Steve sees is the loss of his buddies.