How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Beyond my failings as a racist, I knew I was not wanted in the South. When people are engaged in something they are not proud of, they do not want witnesses. In fact, they come to believe the witness causes the trouble. (4.2.13)
Both because he wasn't a racist and because he was an outsider, Steinbeck did not feel terribly welcome in the South. To make matters even dicier for him, he was running around with New York plates on his car. Eep.
Quote #8
Recently a dear Southern friend instructed me passionately in the theory of "equal but separate." "It just happens," he said, "that in my town there are three new Negro schools not equal but superior to the white schools. Now wouldn't you think they would be satisfied with that? And in the bus station the washrooms are exactly the same. What's your answer to that?"
I said, "Maybe it's a matter of ignorance. You could solve it and really put them in their places if you switched schools and toilets. The moment they realized that your schools weren't as good as theirs, they would realize their error." (4.2.15-16)
Steinbeck manages to turn the tables on a Southern friend who was trying to defend the whole idea of separate but equal. Wethinks he makes a pretty compelling point: if it's so "equal," why wouldn't the white folks want to use the same facilities as the African Americans?
Quote #9
While I was still in Texas, late in 1960, the incident most reported and pictured in the newspapers was the matriculation of a couple of tiny Negro children in a New Orleans school. (4.3.1)
Steinbeck swings through the South during a pretty volatile time. In New Orleans, there were protests against the enrollment of African American children at a school. Some women called the "Cheerleaders" were camped out yelling nasty things to try to deter the kids from, you know, getting an education. Steinbeck is not impressed.