Eyes Journal 2

"[Hicks] wasn't ready to think of colored people in post offices yet. He laughed boisterously.
'Ya'll let dat stray darky tell y'all any ole lie! Uh colored man sittin' up in uh post office!' He made an obscene sound.
'He's liable tuh do it too, Hicks. Ah hope so anyhow. Us colored folks is too envious of one 'nother. Dat's how come us don't git no further than us do. Us talks about de white man keepin' us down! Shucks! He don't have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down.'
'Now who said Ah didn't want de man tuh git us uh post office? He kin be de king uh Jerusalem fuh all Ah keer. Still and all, 'taint no use in telling lies just 'cause uh heap uh folks don't know better. Yo' common sense oughta tell yuh de white folks ain't goin' tuh 'low him tuh run no post office.'
'Dat we don't know, Hicks. He say he kin and Ah b'lieve he know what he's talkin' 'bout. Ah reckon if colored folks got thay own town they kin have post offices and whatsoever they please, regardless. And then again, Ah don't speck de white folks way off yonder give uh damn. Less us wait and see' " (36-37)

In the white are two words describing the sound that Hicks is making. Boisterous has the synonyms rowdy and rambunctious which makes me think of the words loud and uncontrollable and childlike. Obscene has the first definition as "disgusting to the senses". It was a disgusting sound. It is also curious as to why she said the word "sound" as in the past she has used snort or an other specific sound. The word "sound" is generic which maybe shows there is no better description than "an obscene sound".

Coker repeatedly uses the word "us", highlighted in black, when he is speaking about the colored people keeping themselves down. This is important because he is emphasizing that all are held down not by the Caucasians but by themselves. Joe Starks doesn't appear to be held down by anyone. Coker also says that the colored folk are envious and they are the problem. In some ways it was the Caucasians because they started that idea with slavery and the Jim Crow Laws.

Finally, in blue are words used because of the dialect that show a repeating idea of being less. The word "down" is not closely as related but emphasizes how Hicks and Coker see themselves and other colored people below the whites or a step down. The two words "low" and "less" really meant allow or let. the words being said in slang like this continues to make Hicks and Coker's idea of their people more visible.