How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I was terrified that my son would get caught up in the cycle of violence, drugs, and crime that had claimed so many from my generation—including me. I didn't want him to join the long line of young Black males who became statistics, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. (10.53)
Things get even more personal when Shaka thinks about his son than when he thinks about himself. His son is one of the reasons that Shaka decides he has to work for changes in the systemic problems the African American community faces.
Quote #5
Growing up, I didn't understand much about racial dynamics. My parents had raised us to view all people as people, and since we lived in aneighborhood that was primarily white, I believed them. But during my time in Prestonsburg, I learned that bigotry still exists in some parts of the country.(11.36)
Shaka has a rude awakening when he and other African Americans face a bomb threat and cross burning while he's at a skills training program in Kentucky. Unfortunately, there's a lot more direct discrimination to come in his story.
Quote #6
With each book that they fed me, I felt a part of my soul growing and opening up to commune with my ancestors. I immersed myself in African history and imagined what it was like in ancient Kemet (which had been renamed Egypt by the Greeks). I thought about the pyramids, which have stood the test of time, and wondered how they had been engineered. I thought about Timbuktu and how that society had created a vast trove of knowledge that was the envy of the world. In the short time I was at Standish, I learned more about African history than I had ever learned during all of my years in school. (14.35)
Shaka has some positive Black role models like his dad, but he also talks a lot in the book about ways his neighborhood failed to provide a healthy model for the African American middle class. If he'd learned more about African contributions to the world in his early schooling, would that have helped him choose healthier paths early on?