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no-count and sorry they ain no good ta nobody. All they
does is tryn figger out some way ta make money fer they-
selves. They gits the notion they wants white-collar jobs
when there ain no white-collar Jobs fer em."
"Perhaps Negro schools aren't good enough," I suggest.
"Although the constitution provides for the equal education
of the races, this State spends about forty dollars per year
for the education of every white child, and only about four
teen dollars for every Negro. And throughout the South,
seventy-five percent of the Negro children leave school before
completing the fifth grade."
"l done told ya what nigger schools is good fer. Ifen
the State's a-spendin twelve cents a year on em, then thas
jus twelve cents throwed away!"
"Do you think it would be a good idea to change the schools;
to teach trades and agriculture, rather than the traditional
subjects which the Negroes seldom use?"
"Now ya talkin. —But after ya trains em ta be good mechanics
and farmers, who's gonna give em Jobs or farms? The way things
is bein run, the world ain makin use of the mechanics and farmers
there is now...and changin nigger schools ain gonna change thet!"
Again we stop, this time in front of the Zion Star Baptist
Church. A group of women are gathered on the church steps,
roasting spare-ribs over a charcoal pot. Homer gets out, walks
over to them, slaps a buxom black girl loudly on the rump.

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