How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It's the blood that tells:
slaves black as Mississippi mud
ring the trunk
of my family tree.
They speak through me
Black as they want to be.
The slaver's white drop
couldn't stop the spread
of African cells.
They're bred
in the bone,
past the slick hair,
the too-fair skin.
So don't tell me
I can't fit in. (39.1)
Tanisha's poem is all about her African heritage. Yes, she might have some European DNA mixed in there, but she's black through and through and no one can tell her otherwise.
Quote #8
I will not apologize because my eyes are blue.
I am cool with being me just like you're cool with you.
By the way, just 'cause you brothers put the H in hip
doesn't mean some of us white boys can't pick up a tip.
I can get down on the get-down. I know how to flow.
I be checking out Dr. Dre too, if you must know.
But enough of that, 'cause I've got something on my mind.
I have seen the News at Five and here is what I find:
There ain't nothing good on teens, don't matter where you look.
Black or white, screen time is strictly for the teenage crook.
Hear them tell it, drugs and violence is our only song.
For myself, I think it's time that we all prove them wrong. (62.3)
Steve may be white, but he shows the black kids in class that he can flow with the best of them. Steve doesn't make any apologies for who he is—he's white, but he grew up in a black and Latino neighborhood, so he embraces those cultures, too. Tyrone is pretty impressed.
Quote #9
Wesley put his hand on my shoulder. "Sheila," he said, "you want to hang with brothas and sistas, it ain't no big thing. Just don't try to be them […] Soon as you get out of here, you're going to go to a college or get a job where everybody else is as blond and blue-eyed as you. They walk like you and talk like you. What're you going to do, then? Change yourself back?"
The truth of his words pinned me to the wall. I never even stopped to think about the future, about leaving this school, this neighborhood, maybe even this city. All I ever think about is now, because now hurts so bad. (63.11-12)
Wesley's words really hit Sheila. She's trying hard to fit in, and she mistakenly thinks that she should change her identity in order to do so. Wesley doesn't see that as the way to go, though. Sheila might stand out now, but someday she'll leave town and join the white majority. What will she do then? Keep her "Africana" name or change herself again to fit in? Nope. Best thing to do is just be yourself.