How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
White folk! Who they think they kidding? They might as well go blow smoke up somebody else's you-know-what, 'cause a Black man's got no chance in this country. I be lucky if I make it to twenty-one with all these fools running round with AK-47s. (3.2)
Whoa. Tyrone has some pretty strong opinions on race here. Is he wrong to be distrustful of white people? Or does he have a point? After all, he did watch his own dad get gunned down. Maybe the future isn't looking so bright for a black kid from the inner city like him?
Quote #2
Trumpeter of Lenox and 7th
through Jesse B. Semple,
you simply celebrated
Blues and Be-bop
and being Black before
it was considered hip.
You dipped into
the muddy waters
of the Harlem River
and shouted "taste and see"
that we Black folk be good
at fanning hope
and stoking the fires
of dreams deferred.
You made sure
the world heard
about the beauty
of maple sugar children,
and the artfully tattooed backs of Black
sailors venturing out
to foreign places. (2.1)
Wesley's poem celebrates Langston Hughes, but also thanks the poet for showing the world what black people can do. Hughes's poem makes the black experience seem beautiful, something to be proud of. Wesley is really grateful to see these positive messages about his own life and his place in the world. Thanks, Langston.
Quote #3
My brothers laugh at me just 'cause they've been in the world a little longer. They say I'm loco en la cabeza, that ain't no spic gonna be no big-time artist in America. "First off," I tell them, "I ain't no spic. And second, watch me." (8.12)
Raul embraces his ethnicity and rejects anything that would label him as lesser because he's Latino. His brothers are right: there haven't been tons of big-time Latino artists in America. But Raul doesn't see that as an insurmountable obstacle. It's just a stumbling block he's prepared to leap right over.