Quote 10
"My mama's not home."
"Yes, you told me. I'll wait for her." The woman entered the house without being invited.
Once inside, the county woman looked Abby up and down like she was inspecting a can of vegetables on a store shelf. (14.15-17)
Interestingly, at this point, "the county woman" has already given her name—it's Miss Miller—and yet the author continues to refer to her as "the county woman," letting us know that Abby sees her as more of an archetype than anything else. Abby, in other words, is wary. And rightly so—after all, Miss Miller waltzes into her house uninvited, which is majorly disrespectful. Do you think she would do the same to a white family?
Quote 11
Abby shrieked and ran out of the room. She came back brandishing a sour mop still wet from that afternoon's scrubbing.
"Get out of here, you white witch!" she yelled.
The county woman retreated a step. "I won't authorize you to get one cent from this county if you don't put that thing down, you dirty n*****!" (14.22-24)
Yikes. This is how the county woman responds to Abby not taking kindly to her looking up her dress without permission. We're thinking the county isn't exactly on Team Black People if it employs people who treat black people this way. That there's some institutionalized racism, for you. Oh, and race is definitely on Abby's radar, though this is the only time we hear her talk about it.
Quote 12
Abby scanned the newspaper for events that might be interesting to the older woman. "Mother Barker, it says here that over in Ardmore the police shot another black man. Name of Teddy Walker." (6.80)
Abby often reads the Black Dispatch to Mother Barker. Not to blow your mind or anything, but one upon a time there wasn't the Internet and people got their information primarily from these wackadoodle things called newspapers. Which leaves us with one question: Why do you think Abby reads the newspaper to Mother Barker? We're thinking it's because she can't read, and yet she's clearly learned a whole lot in her day. Education comes in all forms, yo.