On page 214: “Who was I kidding? I’m a farmer and farmers are natural segregationists… I’m a farmer: we segregate in an effort to give every tree, every plant, every poor Mexican, every poor nigger, a chance for equal access to sunlight and water; we make sure each living organism has room to breathe.” Why is his argument false? In other words, if segregation provided equality, what are the faults of this type of system?
One thought on “The Sellout (186-223)”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The farming analogy is especially pertinent because segregating agriculture into different pockets of isolated species creates a system with limited biodiversity. With diminished gene variety, one single environmental downturn can illicit massive plant death. Similarly, in society, even if different racial groups were treated evenly, each group would be too similar to each other. Without variety of opinions and experiences, simple seeming problems become increasingly hard to solve. Beatty upholds the importance of diversity of race, thought, and experience in his allusions that span across all facets of society.