How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was not only colored people who praised John, since they could not, John felt, in any case really know; but white people also said it, in fact had said it first and said it still. (1.1.29)
John pleases everyone around him, white and black. It's interesting that the narrator points out that white people praised him first. Although it's not clear that that's what the narrator is saying, it is clear that John's relationship to white people is very different from his father's.
Quote #2
"You come here, boy," he said, "and see what them white folks done done to your brother." (1.1.159)
Gabriel uses Roy's accident as an object lesson, not about what trouble John might get into if he runs with the wrong crowd, but rather about what might happen if he gets too near white people. He sees the wound as an insult from one race to another, the only interpretation he can give it.
Quote #3
"You see?" came now from his father. "It was white folks, some of them white folks you like so much that tried to cut your brother's throat." (1.1.165)
This line kind of makes it hard to trust Gabriel. He says that the white people tried to cut Roy's throat… when his wound is up on his forehead. But remember that there was another Roy, whose throat was slit in Chicago, who was John's half-brother.