Quote 7
[Mrs. Turner]: "You oughta meet mah brother. He’s real smart. Got dead straight hair." (16.22)
Her brother’s "dead straight hair" is a mark of his mixed-blood heritage. To Mrs. Turner, it is a mark of pride simply because it differentiates him from the rest of the common black people. Mrs. Turner also seems to imply that her brother’s intelligence is linked to his whiteness, since she places "he’s real smart" alongside "dead straight hair."
Quote 8
"We all laks tuh take uh rest from our women folks’ cookin’ once in uh while, so us all eatin’ way from home tuhnight. Anyhow Mis’ Turner got de best ole grub in town."
Mrs. Turner back and forth in the dining room heard Sop when he said this and beamed.
"Ah speck you two last ones tuh come in is gointuh gave tuh wait for uh seat. Ah’m all full up now." (17.20-22)
Mrs. Turner takes legitimate pride in her highly popular and successful restaurant, but her pride makes her susceptible to flattery and deception. Sop-de-Bottom and the rest of Tea Cake’s friends are merely feeding her vanity so they can blind her as they drag her restaurant down.