How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"They came and said everybody in the village had to fight against the invaders. The fedayeen knew the villagers were mostly from minor tribes and they didn't care about them being killed. Everybody who refused to fight would be shot. They even gave the children guns. (6.206)
Coming into Iraq, Birdy thought of the Iraqis as one people, but that's not how they always think of each other. The villagers' lives didn't matter to the fedayeen just because of what tribe they're from.
Quote #8
I also didn't like searching people. I had been stopped on 136th Street once, just outside the Countee Cullen Library, by two plainclothes cops who had searched me. I knew what it felt like. Embarrassed that I had to stand there with my hands in the air while strangers patted me down and went through my pockets, humiliated because they were assuming power over me and I couldn't do a thing about it. I felt I knew how the Iraqi men felt while I searched them. (10.87)
There are complicated reasons beyond racial profiling for the squad to search the Iraqis, but having been profiled makes Birdy feel connected to the people he has to search. It must be an uncomfortable feeling.
Quote #9
We got back just in time for supper. Jonesy started interviewing Marla again, holding his spoon up as a mike.
"Yo, Miss White Lady, how do you feel rescuing a poor little Racki boy?" (11.99-100)
Their whole squad worked together to find Muhammed, but Marla was the one interviewed for it. When Jonesy calls her Miss White Lady, he suggests that her skin color might've been a factor in why the media chose to interview her afterward.