This one made it through Althouse Moderation. I can't figure it out...
Sarah's mind once again slipped wistfully into the past, to that One Hot Summer in 1957 in Madison County...
"Miss Sarah, I has a question..."
"Yes, my sweet Mandingo?"
"When a white person goes to the grocer a tin of oatmeal costs twelve cents, right?"
"That's right."
"Well, I went today and Mr. Brown the grocer told me the cost for a tin of oatmeal is twenty-five cents for a Negro. How can that be?"
"Oh, my silly Mandingo: that's the Free Market."
"But it wasn't Free, it was twenty-five cents."
"No, no: the Free Market just means someone can charge whatever they want for something."
"So Mr. Brown charging Negroes more is fair?"
"Why, of course, my Mandingo. If you don't like it you can take your business elsewhere."
"But he's the only grocer in town."
"Well, you might have to go to another town to find less expensive oatmeal. But it might be more expensive somewhere else, too -- you never know."
"But shouldn't the price of oatmeal just be the price of oatmeal?"
"Oh dear, Mandingo, you're starting to sound like a Communist. You're not a Communist now, are you?"
"No, Miss Sarah, no! I'm an American."
"Well, you're not quite an American, my Mandingo. You're a Negro that lives in America."
"Is there a difference, Miss Sarah?'
"It's always different for Negroes, Mandingo. For Chinks, too."
"What about Retards, Miss Sarah? Is it different for them?"
"My silly Mandingo: a Retard is still an American, provided that he's a White Retard."
"All I wanted was to buy oatmeal at the same price as white people do, that's all. I don't want to be a Communist."
"My Mandingo, you people used to get your oatmeal for free, you know?"
"We did, Miss Sarah?"
"When you were still Slaves, silly. The Master bought everything for you."
"Freedom sure is expensive, Miss Sarah."
"You can't have it both ways, Mandingo."
"I thinks there is only one way the Negro gets it Miss Sarah, and that is the Negro gets it hard..."
"My silly Mandingo, if God wanted it to be easy for you he would have made you white..."
I am Laslo.
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