How we cite our quotes: (Story.Section.Paragraph) or (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I wanted them to be unable, when they left my class, to think of enslaved women as exotic, picturesque, removed from themselves, deserving of enslavement. (Letter.12)
Susan Marie has spent an entire semester working her students hard, pushing them to deconstruct this stereotype and to reject it. But it seems that the stereotype won't die. On the night before the last class, it rears its ugly head on a TV show. The whole class is frustrated and freaked out: when will society understand how damaging this image really is?
Quote #8
In Georgia, she knew that even to Pam she would be just another ordinarily attractive colored girl. In Georgia, there were a million girls better looking. Pam wouldn't know that, of course; she'd never been to Georgia; she'd never seen a black person to speak to, that is, before she met Sarah. (Trip.18)
Sarah Davis is getting pretty tired of the girls in her all-white Northern school calling her "beautiful" and "exotic." It doesn't feel like a compliment to her since they don't have any context for judging her beauty. The truth, in her mind, is that she's just one of many beautiful Black women from her hometown. But Sarah is literally the only Black woman her classmates know. It's an isolating experience, and one that forces her into a position of "representing" when she may or may not want the job.
Quote #9
[…] Wright's father was one faulty door in a house of many ancient rooms. Was that one faulty door to shut him off forever from the rest of the house? (Trip.36)
Sarah Davis thinks about author Richard Wright's dad dilemma: does he really need a dad to be a fully realized person? Her conclusion: probably not, but he does need access to his path to truly understand where he comes from and who he is. Sarah has the same problem in her life, but she finds that her brother can act as an access point to her authentic self.