How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Times changing," Jones said, adjusting his sunglasses. "You cain scare color peoples no more. I got me some peoples form a human chain in front your door, drive away your business, get you on the TV news. Color peoples took enough horses*** already, and for twenty dollars a week you ain piling no more on." (3.150)
Again, Jones's threats of Civil Rights action are hollow. The only Civil Rights demonstration in the novel is the one at Levy Pants… and that doesn't exactly work out.
Quote #5
"In a sense I have always felt something of a kinship with the colored race because its position is the same as mine: we both exist outside the inner realm of American society. Of course, my exile is voluntary. However, it is apparent that many of the Negroes wish to become active members of the American middle class. I cannot imagine why. I must admit that this desire on their part leads me to question their value judgments. However, if they wish to join the bourgeoisie, it is really none of my business." (5.185)
Ignatius is condescending to everyone, but he's condescending to black people, too. He doesn't really care about racial injustice; he just likes using it as a metaphor for his own unique, romantic isolation. He doesn't seem to realize quite how bourgeois it is to sneer at the bourgeois aspirations of folks who are being deliberately kept in poverty.
Also… is Ignatius's exile from society really voluntary? I mean, would you hire him? We wouldn't, not even to do the guide for the Consolation of Philosophy.
Quote #6
"The lady in charge of the choir may choose the tune. Knowing nothing of your musical folkways, I shall leave the selection to you, although I wish that there had been time enough to teach all of you the beauties of some madrigal." (6.92)
Folk music, including spirituals, is closely associated with the Civil Rights movement. Toole is perhaps commenting on the condescending way in which white activists could assume that black people were especially connected to an authentic folk culture. In reality, of course, most black people in the 1960s listened to popular music and hit songs, just as most white people did. (Though the exact hit songs that were popular might differ from community to community.)