How we cite our quotes: (Story.Section.Paragraph) or (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Now her mind stuck on fifteen years ago, and her own witnessing of similar signs coming down in the South. But the signs had already done their work. For as long as she lived she knew she would be intimidated by fancy restaurants, hotels, even libraries, from which she had been excluded before. (Source.183)
It doesn't take much to shape the way we see our place in the world, as Irene acknowledges here. Segregation may have ended—the signs enforcing separate spaces for Blacks and whites have come down, for example—but the sense of being unwelcome doesn't go away that easily. It's just one of the many ways that racism affects the mindset of a nation.