How we cite our quotes: The main text of the story is cited (Chapter.Paragraph). The date headers are not counted as paragraphs. The verses in the chapters with a single passage from the narrator's religious texts are cited (Chapter.Verse.Line#). In chapters with multiple passages, the verses are cited (Chapter.Verse#.Line#). The four section pages with the years and passages are cited (Year.Verse).
Quote #7
"There aren't many black people up that way, are there?" I asked.
"Not many," he agreed. "My sister hasn't had much trouble, though." (22.34-35)
When Lauren and Bankole are talking about the possibility of settling on his land, she wants to know what the racial makeup of the area is like. They're both Black, but there aren't many Black folks in the area where he owns land. They eventually start Acorn on Bankole's place, which is in northern California. In real life, the Pacific Northwest region (Acorn is pretty close to that) is populated predominantly by white people.
Quote #8
The two scared people turned out to be the most racially mixed that I had ever met. [...] The woman had a Japanese father, a black mother, and a Mexican husband, all dead. (23.86)
Here, Lauren welcomes Emery and her daughter Tori. Once again, one of the factors encouraging Lauren to help strangers is their ethnic diversity. Almost everyone in Parable of the Sower has to struggle to survive, but perhaps minorities suffer more; so maybe Lauren sees some strength in those individuals. Welcoming them into her community can then strengthen Earthseed itself.
Quote #9
"None of this is new." Bankole made himself comfortable against me. "In the early 1990s while I was in college, I heard about cases of growers doing some of this—holding people against their wills and forcing them to work without pay. Latins in California, blacks and Latins in the south....Now and then, someone would go to jail for it." (23.114)
This near-future sci-fi novel depicts scary situation for minority workers, but a lot of it is founded on reality. Consider, for example, the Bracero Program decades ago.