"...You get the truck but then you also get two in the back of the head because you reached for your cell phone," Ike said. He glanced at Buddy Lee. "So you still wanna trade places?" Buddy Lee swallowed hard and turned his head to toward the window, but he didn't say a word. "That's what I thought. Green don't matter if its in a Black hand,"

I have a similar sentiment, especially white women co-opting black women's style and/or body features. ex: long nails, braids, locs, thick lips (filler), fat ass (bbl) The desire to want our culture on the surface level, but you don't want to actually switch places. You want the aesthetic but not the oppression, mistreatment, or the reality of being black in America.

Both Buddy Lee and Ike are problematic as hell. Racism, sexism and homophobia galore. Hopefully they can learn some things from one another. But Ike is ready to set Buddy Lee in his place lol.

"The sadness from the morning didn't exactly go away; it dried on me and slowly crumbled, leaving me covered in little flakes, like if you eat a glazed donut in a black shirt. That was how it was being a grown-up. We were all moving through the world like that, like those river dolphins that look pink only because they're so covered in scars."

Oof Margo you are hitting right in the feels. As an almost 30 year old myself, I never expected adulthood to be this difficult. It is impossible navigating a country that does not care for you and the rest of its citizens. (thanks america)

"But then he remembered he had no sympathy for colonizers." YES JIN