QUOTES - QUOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

(Continued)

A different kind of cultural disconnect happens on Thanksgiving, as Cedric has dinner with the family of Donald Korb and seeks refuge afterwards with African American friends who are putting him up for the night at Harvard:

After half an hour, he's becoming frantic. It's not just that he's supposed to sleep there tonight. It's more than that. He feels like he's been on a strange journey - confusing, exhilarating, bizarre - and home is wherever black people are.

Fifteen sweaty minutes later, he thinks he's bumped into the right dorm. He punches a room number on the intercom plate alongside the locked exterior door.

Nothing. Then a grainy sound. It's Mark's voice coming through. "NIGGER?!" Cedric screams, a word he never, ever uses. "That you!?" "Yeah, it's me," Mark says through the static. "Calm down."

"I'm stranded out here. Oh Gaaawd, come get me!" (257)

The most startling aspect of this scene is Cedric screaming the word "nigger" at his friend, and it's pointed out this is "a word he never, ever uses". The punctuation is worth noting, as it includes a question mark and an exclamation mark --further emphasizing the sense of confusion in the scene. This outburst brings home the strangeness of the evening for him - described with a chain of adjectives as " confusing, exhilarating, bizarre". Having spent Thanksgiving dinner with the rich, white family of his personal benefactor Donald Korb, he is grateful but still decides that "home is wherever black people are". Thus the use of "nigger" reinforces that idea: it isn't a word he can use in polite company, and most certainly would be problematic with people of other color. However, among close friends who are also black, it is understandable --Mark doesn't even berate him for the slur, but instead tells him to "calm down" since he's finally "home" in the symbolic sense.

Nevertheless, Cedric still doesn't fit in as well as he would like during his first semester at Brown. The following passage is from the perspective of his Education professor, Tom James, after speaking with a Latino freshman:

It's what Franklin does so well, Tom muses, as he listens to the polished student expound. Not that Franklin denies his Latino heritage - a mortal sin at a place like Brown, where group identity is celebrated by 160 different student groups, many of them aligned along ethnic or racial lines. But, take it one level down, and Franklin, like most students at Brown, is artfully accommodationist in his character, In just a few months, Brown has helped him to intellectualize his Latino status, to make it portable, something he can take out, and wear, when needed. Here, he's encouraged to wear it a lot, whether in class discussions or social engagements. But underneath the public posture, Franklin, like so many of Brown's upwardly mobile minority students, is becoming skilled in the many dialects he'll need to get ahead. He's slowly cutting away some of his cultural ethnicity as he cuts a deal with the broader American society he expects to enter. The process is gradual but steady, causing changes he may not notice until after he's graduated. In the meantime, he can assuage assimilationist guilt by hanging out with Latino kids at the VeeDub and going to salsa dances at Machado, the Spanish House. (258-259)

The rhetoric of this passage is more elevated than in other parts of the book, but not in the abstract manner of Suskind's narratives about childhood and educational development. Rather, it is more intellectually honed and more ironic in its use of references. The description of "mortal sin" for denying one's ethnic identity is meant to be at least partially ironic, as academia is notorious for its secular values and supposed disdain of strong religious beliefs. If anything, the "religion" of higher education are the secular values of multiculturalism and tolerance. Further, James muses that Franklin's Latino identity has become "portable" and something that can be worn. This is an intriguing image to employ, as it sets the notion of identity on its head: identity and who a person is is not essentialist - that is, it is not something a person simply is and cannot be changed. Rather, it can be assumed, taken on when needed, taken off when not needed. Such a view is distinctly postmodern, where a sense of who one is - what identity one possesses - is mutable, open to change and able to be switched as needed.

The term "assimilationist guilt" is interesting not only because it's a rare example of sociological jargon used in the book, but also because it indicates a self-consciousness and fear about giving up one's racial and ethnic identity in order to move ahead socially, economically, and academically. In a very real sense, this is the same line of thinking which had Ballou students calling Cedric and other academic achievers as "whities". Mainstreaming into a powerful educational institution such as Brown is considered "being white", despite all the rhetoric about multiculturalism.

Another significant theme is the role of religion and self-sufficiency in how Cedric understands himself. At the start of the second semester, he makes an important decision:

They key, he finally realizes, has always been pride. Over years, it had quietly knitted itself into his core. But, just like at church, it was sort of a sin in his neighborhood and at Ballou. Though he'd never actually use the word, kids must have sensed it in him when they always attacked him for "thinking he was better than everyone else." He ended up building all those convoluted rationales for lofty ambition, saying he needed to go to a famous college, a place everyone had heard of, to justify all of his painful sacrifices. It's all clear now: that was just a cover. It was pride - pure, simple, in-your-face, shining breastplate pride - that got him to this place. And, after making it this far, he'll be damned if he'll swallow it now. (275-276)

In a way, this is the true major break that Cedric makes with the Scripture Cathedral church and Bishop Long. He will later ask Bishop Long for permission to leave the church, but in deciding at this juncture to place his pride above religious humility, Cedric has become one of those who places more faith in themselves than in the church community. The earlier quoted passage about Bishop Long and his fear of losing more affluent congregants applies quite directly here. Cedric may not be affluent yet, but he is clearly on the road to a better life and thus his attitude is changing as Long predicted.

Another break Cedric makes is with Zayd, at the start of the Spring semester. As the tension grows due to Cedric's aloofness, he says the following:

"Sister Souljah says that just because white people may be around you," Cedric says, mentioning the female rapper's news-making barb as he turns to look hard at Zayd, "it doesn't mean they are for you."

"I could be," says Zayd softly. "You're for me." "Who told you that?" Cedric says, as he watches Zayd's expression become pained. He waits another moment, letting the silence speak. "I'm not saying I'm not," Cedric says finally, surprised at how flat and hard his voice is. "I'm not pretending to like you, or not like you, I'm not pretending to be anything." (280)

Ironically, in claiming he is not "pretending to be anything", he is actually denying the bond that had grown naturally between himself and Zayd. The quote from Sister Souljah shows how he uses the words of others to protect what he truly feels, as he does not want to appear vulnerable or open to Zayd at this moment.

In his second semester Education class, Cedric must monitor the classroom of a Mr. Fleming at Slater High School. Cedric watches Fleming heap abuse on students during the first class of the day, and afterwards speaks to Cedric in private:

He leans in toward Cedric, conspiratorially. "You know," he whispers, "I can tell the ones that will die when they leave here, when they leave this school. I can see them. You look at them hard enough, long enough, and you can tell. You really can." (283)

There is a harshness to this judgment which is striking in that it is a white teacher expressing contempt for black students in a brutal, unabashed manner. This closely resembles another talk that Cedric had with an educator, specifically his final meeting with Professor Trilling at MIT which had him brand Trilling a racist. The same dynamic is at work here: judgment on students' abilities combined with a refusal to understand the difficulties of their learning situation. What makes this scene ironic is that Cedric is spoken to as an equal by Fleming, as someone who understands what Fleming means. Cedric, on the other hand, finds himself identifying more with the students, as if he was back in Ballou and being talked down by the Dream busters.