Everyday Use Race Quotes
How we cite our quotes: Paragraph
Quote #1
Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? It seems to me I have talked to them always with one foot raised in flight, with my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them. (6)
Is it just us or does the phrase with one foot raised in flight suggest the narrator senses something pretty threatening, maybe even violent, about white men with whom she interacts? This probably isn't some paranoid delusion on the narrator's part. After all, she grew up in the first half of the 20th century, a time in which black people still lived under threats of lynch mob violence and race riots.
Quote #2
Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. (10)
The issue of whether being a lighter-skinned African American comes with certain benefits has a really long history (and is still discussed today). The argument goes all the way back to slavery, when enslaved people with fairer complexions were sometimes saved from work in the fields of the plantations and allowed to work in "easier" roles as house servants. In remarking that Dee is lighter than Maggie, the narrator may be subtly pointing out this legacy.
Quote #3
I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Don't ask me why: in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now. (13)
This quote suggests that living in the era of Jim Crow (when that whole bogus separate but equal law reigned supreme in the South) may have been even worse than the history books let on. It also hints that the era of black liberation in the 1960s may not have been as liberated as the books let on either. Now might be a good time to think about who wrote/writes most of those books…
Quote #4
"Wa-su-zo Tean-o!" [Dee] says, coming on in that gliding way the dress makes her move. (21)
Dee's African salutation sure is more interesting than your average hello. What statement is she trying to make by using this greeting?
Quote #5
The short stocky fellow with the hair to his navel is all grinning and he follows up with "Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!" (21)
The narrator makes plenty of observations about Hakim-a-barber's appearance. But why doesn't she comment on the color of his skin?
Quote #6
[Dee] stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. (22)
Dee seems to play the part of some National Geographic photographer capturing the quaint scene of a black woman and child in front of a shabby house in a pasture. Weird, right? What is her deal with taking these pictures?
Quote #7
"Well," I say. "Dee."
"No Mama," she says. "Not 'Dee,' Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!"
"What happened to 'Dee'?' I wanted to know.
"She's dead," Wangero said. "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me." (24-27)
Let the revolution begin. Is Dee's name change an effective way to fight racial oppression?
Quote #8
"You don't have to call me by [the name Wangero] if you don't want to," said Wangero.
"Why shouldn't I?" I asked. "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you." (38-39).
If Dee was just changing her name to try and shock her mother, she majorly failed. Do you think the narrator admires Dee's attempts to celebrate her African roots? Or is she just humoring the kid?
Quote #9
You must belong to those beef-cattle people down the road," I said. They said "Asalamalakim" when they met you, too, but they didn't shake hands. Always too busy: feeding the cattle, fixing the fences, putting up salt-lick shelters, throwing down hay. When the white folks poisoned some of the herd the men stayed up all night with rifles in their hands. (43)
Hakim-a-barber ends up distancing himself from these people when he tells the narrator that farming and raising cattle "isn't his style." What does this tell us about him?
Quote #10
And then [Dee] turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." (81)
Ouch—it's probably safe to assume that when Dee says It's really a new day for us, she's referring to African Americans. Dee seems to blame her mother and Dee that they're not as "advanced" in their progress as they could be. Does she have a point or is she full of baloney?