Quote 1
"I have no idea." He stared at me, and I realized that I had not answered him in the proper manner. "Sir," I added. (3.45)
In this scene Grant shows how race determines everything about a person in their relationships with the world, even the way they are supposed to speak to others. He knows that he is supposed to call Henri "Sir", because as a white man he is Grant's superior.
Quote 2
"We black men have failed to protect our women since the time of slavery. We stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves." (21.86)
This statement by Grant shows the very deep effects that the history of slavery can have on family structures and gender relationships for an entire race. Even though slavery had ended almost a hundred years before (not actually a long time, historically speaking), its legacy still limits black men's choices in the South.
Quote 3
"You go'n buy that?"
I looked around at the short, stout, powdered-faced white woman.
"Yes, ma'am." Her face changed, but only a little. (22.89-92)
Whoa, racial profiling. This shopkeeper is doubting Grant's purchasing power because he's a black man. This is a double dose of prejudice: the prejudice against black people and the prejudice against poor people. It's gross, and it's unfortunately still happening today.
Quote 4
"I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be." (24.40)
Grant isn't asking Jefferson to just be better than people expect him to be. He's asking him to teach them a lesson about prejudice by showing them how wrong their expectations are about him. Only if they are made aware of the difference between their expectations and reality will they start to question their prejudices.
Quote 5
"Their forefathers said that we're only three-fifths human—and they believe it to this day." (24.43)
Grant is referring to the Three-Fifths Compromise, a decision between northern and southern states to count slaves as three-fifths of a human being for purposes of taxes and number of representatives in the House. That political decision helped cement prejudices about the worth of black people in the minds of Americans.
Quote 6
"Do I know how a man who is supposed to die? [. . .] Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived?" (4.105)
This question shows that, even if Grant doesn't know what it is, there is a proper way to meet your death and face your mortality. The problem is that death is the end of a life, and he doesn't consider that Jefferson has really had much of a life at all.
Quote 7
"Why not let the hog die without knowing anything?" (4.107)
Grant is wrestling with himself here, wondering whether it's worthwhile at all to help someone when you know they're going to die anyway. However, isn't that the case of all of us? We may not be sitting on death row, but we are all mortals (except for you X-Men in the back row. We see you.).
Quote 8
"God?" I said. Because I had never heard him say God before. Because when we had said our Bible verses for him, he seemed to have hated the very words we spoke. (8.37)
Grant seems to be following in Professor Antoine's footsteps, because he hates listening to the Bible verses just as much as his old teacher did. However, the old man seems to have come to a new understanding of God as he gets closer to death.
Quote 9
"Do I know how a man is supposed to die? I'm still trying to find out how a man should live." (4.105)
One important part of growing up is facing the fact that one day life is going to end. Grant still hasn't even figured out the right way to act like a grown-up, and what his responsibilities are to his community. He knows he'll have to figure those questions out before he can ever know how he's supposed to die well.
Quote 10
"And that's all we are, Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we—each one of us, individually—decide to become something else." (24.48)
Grant compares Jefferson to a piece of rough wood that can be carved smooth into whatever he wants to be. The key is that each person has to decide to become something else—there's no whittler wandering around picking each of us up and telling us what to be.
Quote 11
"Exactly what I'm trying to do here with you now: to make you responsible young men and young ladies. But you, you prefer to play with bugs. You refuse to study your arithmetic, and you prefer writing slanted sentences instead of straight ones. Does that make any sense?" (5.47)
Grant is looking at his students and fearing for their futures, because he knows how likely it is for kids in their situation to end up just like Jefferson. The only problem is, he has no idea how to help them break the cycle and just ends up lecturing them.
Quote 12
"I teach because it is the only thing that an educated black man can do in the South today. I don't like it; I hate it." (24.38)
This is a huge insight into one of the reasons that Grant's students don't care to learn their lessons or go on to get further education. There's no point. If there is no motivation to become a doctor or lawyer (or underwater basket weaver) or whatever a student wants to become (unless they happen to want to be a teacher), they have no motivation for learning.
Quote 13
"But, Mr. Wiggins, now you was looking out that window too, now. I seen you." (8.7)
Injustice isn't just confined to the courthouse. Even Grant Wiggins himself, who is so bitter about the injustice he has experienced, is pretty unfair with his kids. He makes them stand in the corner for looking out the window and not doing their work when that is exactly what he does.
Quote 14
"Put that chalk down. I can't afford to break it." (5.12)
Just as wood is precious in the school, chalk, too is hard to come by. Grant has to yell at kids who use too much, writing too thickly, and the students have to take turns writing on their slates because they don't have enough chalk to go around. When Grant is going to punish a kid he cares more about the chalk than their skin.