How we cite our quotes: Act.Line
Quote #7
OLUNDE: Don't think it was just the war. Before that even started I had plenty of time to study your people. I saw nothing, finally, that gave you the right to pass judgment on other peoples and their ways. Nothing at all.
JANE [hesitantly]: Was it the… colour thing? I know there is some discrimination.
OLUNDE: Don't make it so simple, Mrs. Pilkings. You make it sound as if when I left, I took nothing with me.
JANE: Yes… and to tell the truth, only this evening, Simon and I agreed we never really knew what you left with.
OLUNDE: Neither did I. But I found out over there. I am grateful to your country for that. And I will never give it up. (4.114-118)
Even when Jane is trying to be (somewhat) sensitive to Olunde and get some intel on his experience, she gets it wrong. Here, she assumes that Olunde's clashes with the British in England were purely the result of skin color, and he has to clarify that it went beyond that. His objection implies that cultural factors were at play as well.
Quote #8
You did not fail in the main thing ghostly one. We know the roof covers the rafters, the cloth covers blemishes; who would have known that the white skin covered our future, preventing us from seeing the death our enemies had prepared for us. The world is set adrift and its inhabitants are lost. Around them, there is nothing but emptiness. (5.20)
After his capture, Elesin frequently riffs on Simon's whiteness by using nicknames for him with ghost in them. And here, he also implies that "white skin" managed to prevent Elesin and others from perceiving their disastrous future—it's as if he has been blinded.
Quote #9
No. What he said must never be unsaid. The contempt of my own son rescued something of my shame at your hands. You have stopped me in my duty but I know now that I did give birth to a son. Once I mistrusted him for seeking the companionship of those my spirit knew as enemies of our race. Now I understand. One should seek to obtain the secrets of his enemies. He will avenge my shame, white one. His spirit will destroy you and yours. (5.24)
Elesin continues to see the clash between his religion and culture and Simon's as one centered on race, referring to the British as enemies of his own.