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Introduction:
I'll tell you one," Walker said. "Alabama state motto is 'Defendin' Our Rights.' And that's all we're doin'. All the time." "Motto doan have you in mind, James." "Better start." "Hey, we finally got a black Santa Claus at the mall. Only thing, he scared hell out of the little black kids. They be dreamin' of a white Christmas." "That's just education," I said. "Yeah, but you see how far it goes. Littlest thing's work and worry. Gotta always have your back in the air, and that wears you down, just like they want. Here's another one. Six people killed in the project last year, and nobody's gone uptown for murder yet. lf a white dude gets it, somebody goes uptown inside three weeks. Maybe the wrong man, but somebody's goan. Law don't care what we do to ourself. Black on black's outside their law." "No black police?" "They be worsen a honky pig. Those black motherheads'll manhandle you. Nothin' but Oreos - black out, white in." "All honky law wants is get a man in jail so's they know where he's at." "But whiteys that run things here don't mind a little black poontang now and then. That's their contribution to equality - hump a nigger." "Yeah, but let a black dude even walk down the street next to a white woman, and in six months they goan frame you. Goan plant some dope in your ride or your house. Put a white bitch on you and pay her to yell rape. They come up with somethin'. They want our best women, but they take you uptown if you say 'hey' to a honky woman none of them would touch with a fence rail." We walked around to a small, windowless, brick sweetshop run by a blindman named Louie. Davis bought three cigarettes, lit one, and put two under his hat. A white candy vendor came in. Louie asked how many of each item he was leaving. They conducted the transaction on trust. Davis said, "Saw whitey rip you, Louie." "Naw, you didn't. Candyman ain't rippin' off old Louie." Walker and I drank grape Nehi. He said, "Louie, tell the man here what it was like when we all did the march."
"Just business to you, ain't that right, Louie?" "Business be business." Outside the shop, Davis said, "I'll tell you a funny one. Last week watchin' at the ballgame. A couple of us sittin' on the fender of some Pontiac. Little bitty white dude comes up draggin' a baseball bat. He's just learnin' to talk. He says, 'You niggers get off my daddy's car!' "Couldn't hardly pronounce nigger. We laughed. Then Daddy comes up and moves the car and never says nothin'. We never blamed the kid. We know where it's comin' from." A uniformed man drove by in a Bell Telephone truck. Walker nudged Davis. "That's four today. Two last night." "What's going on?" I said. "Sheriff's deputy. That's their undercover truck." "Great undercover to wear a uniform," I said. "Why are they watching you?" "They ain't watchin' us, my man - they be watchin' you." "Me? Why me? They think I'm agitating?" Walker and Davis laughed derisively. "They doan give a shit about that. They think you the dope man." "A dealer? How do they come up with that?" "Eyeballs, man. White dude in the project at night, drivin' a van, Northern license. Yeah, man, you be dealin' all right." "If you ain't, they gonna put some stuff on you if you look like trouble." "A cop checked the truck over last night." "Pickin' information. Figurin' how to handle you. When they pull you in, you goan be surprised they know the size of your jockstrap." 775 words Source: BLUE HIGHWAYS by William Least Heat-Moon, BackBay Books, Boston, New York 1983, pp. 100-102 By the way, if you want to see which route of the USA William Least Heat-Moon followed, click here Annotations: honky/honkie - a very offensive word for a white person, used by black people to whup - to hit and hurt somebody badly dude - (old-fashioned) man from a city who is living in or visiting a farm or ranch Oreos - trademark for a popular type of sandwich cookie poontang - Am. slang Vagina to hump - here: to ahve sex with someone goan - sl. going to to frame - planning to make someone seem guilty grape Nehi - soda brand dope man - Drogenhändler jockstrap - Sportbandage zum Schutz der männlichen Genitalien Assignments: 1. Describe the situation (location, persons, topic) the excerpt deals with. 2. Paraphrase 3 of the episodes that the two blacks have experienced in formal written English. 3. After more than 25 years of the implementation of civil right laws in the USA, what would you have not expected regarding the situation as it is depicted in the excerpt? Do you think the two blacks' opinons can be generalized? 4. How does the language of the extract contribute to the topic of the text? 5. What has changed for today's Africa-Americans a further 25 years later?
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