How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
When the county woman came back to the girl standing in the living room, shifting her weight from foot to foot, she hiked up the girl's dress to inspect the cleanliness of her drawers. (14.22)
Whoa, whoa, whoa… not cool, county woman. Not. Cool. Just as we asked when she walked into the house uninvited, do you think she'd disrespect a white child the same way?
Quote #8
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 #9
"My daddy told me the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. Now I know what he meant. I been blessed ever since I saw you picking cotton that fist time. When you stood up at the end of your row, I could see you had country legs. A blackberry-colored, dark-eyed, bowlegged woman." (25.16)
In one of the rare physical descriptions in the book that speaks directly to race, Mother Barker is described as the most beautiful thing her husband has ever seen. Race is largely left out of physical descriptions—a move which normalizes blackness (ever notice how whiteness is rarely mentioned?).