How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I thought maybe the Night of Joy like to help somebody become a member of the community, help keep a poor color boy outta jail. I keep the picket off, give the Night of Joy a good civil right ratin." (2.20)
Jones is trying to use the threat of a Civil Rights boycott to get the Night of Joy to give him a job. The threat is hollow, though, and racism, in the form of vagrancy laws and police harassment, remains much stronger than the Civil Rights movement. As a result, it's Jones who ends up blackmailed.
Quote #2
"She ain't exactly hire me. She kinda buyin me off a auction block." (2.48)
Jones suggests that Jim Crow laws and vagrancy laws are a continuation of slavery by other means. This is underlined later in the novel when Lana Lee forces Jones to dress up as a slave.
Quote #3
"She think cause I color I gonna rape her. She about to throw her grammaw ass out the window. Whoa! I ain gonna rape nobody." (2.248)
Racism in the novel works in a number of ways. On the one hand, Lana seems to have no particular prejudice against black people; she simply exploits racist institutions (like vagrancy laws) for the purposes of economic gain. The woman on the bus, on the other hand, sees Jones through the lens of racist stereotypes and prejudice.